[en] The compensation effect is the often observed linear relationship between the activation energy and pre-exponential factor in the Arrhenius equations of a series of related reactions. Previously reported studies of the graphite/CO₂ reaction at different total pressures and CO₂/CO ratios are used as an example of the compensation effect. The effect is shown in general to be an artefact produced by a strong correlation between the parameter estimates in the conventional Arrhenius plot. A transformation of the Arrhenius plot to minimise the overall correlation between estimates and thus enable detection of a true compensation effect is presented. The results of this transformation on the kinetic data for the graphite/CO₂ reaction are consistent with previous analyses of the reaction system. They show that there is only a limited compensation effect within this study and demonstrate the influence of the approach to equilibrium of the graphite/CO₂ reaction. (author)