Blog #6, The Office Prank, by Julie White

Several years ago I worked with a serial snack eater. My co-worker, well known for popping-into-a-cubical and nibbling on open food containers without permission, needed to learn a lesson on proper food etiquette. Although I liked this goofy guy, my mischievous side started planning an assault. The idea must be brilliant, harmless, and funny. The hunt began for the perfect prank.

I stumbled upon it several months later. While tidying my desk one day I picked up an orange marker and decided to color a packing peanut. With delight the orange fuzzy peanut looked surprisingly like Cheetos. Now armed with the product, the execution would be easy.

The next day I placed on my desk a used Cheetos bag filled with the fake Cheetos, and waited. It didn't take long. Roger strolled into my office, we visited for a minute and he reached down and popped a few Cheetos into his mouth. He quickly made a face and spit them out. I laughed and laughed. To this day I'm not sure if I cured him or not, but I will always cherish the Cheetos prank.

A word that I struggle with is Compose/Comprise. Compose means something made up of other things, such as ingredients. For example, Cheetos are composed of Vegetable oil, Cheese seasoning, canola oil, malto dextrin, salt, whey protein concentrate, and monosodium glutamate.

The other word, comprises, means (takes in, includes) other things. Consider these sentence examples; "The whole is never comprised of the parts.", "Her speech comprised four major themes."

Although joking can be a lot of fun, copy writing and headline errors can do some damage. Worse yet, they can be embarrassing to correct. May we learn to comprise all our skills into great writing, editing and proof reading.