Request for Proposal

Cultivar Descriptions – Review Guide

V.1.0.0-20211213

Writing Guide: https://article.picturethisai.com/writing-guide/

 

What’s this content for?

This writing task is to draw the first impression of a specific cultivar* to the audience. This section is the first section directly talking about the characters of a cultivar, we should tell the readers the information about the origin of the breed, and why people breed this lineage. Try your best to highlight the uniqueness of the cultivar.

*Note: A cultivar is a plant variety cultivated by humans through artificial selection. It is not usually true to seed – the offspring grown from the seeds are rarely genetically the same as the parent.

Requirements

1. General Requirements

  • Word Count: Each description should consist of around 40-60 words. (For Japanese and Korean, around 80-120 characters, for Chinese around 60-90.) Discuss the specific cultivar, NOT the plant it bred from.
    Reject entries with a word count lower than 30.
  • Avoid Formulaic Expression: Try to change the choice of content and expression appropriately, preventing similar content with a similar structure from appearing repeatedly within one working set. Overly formulaic content (>50% content is written in the same form) will be rejected.
    Reject the overly formulaic content (>50% content is written in the same form)
  • Avoid simple listing: including but not limited to geographical distribution and habitat. Try to use generalized terms, e. g., we should say it is bred from different species originating in “Northeast Asia” instead of in “Japan, Korea, Inner Mongolia, and Russian Far East”. A simple listing of more than 3 items (countries, habitats) at one time is NOT ALLOWED.
    Reject simple listings of more than 3 items (countries, habitats) at one time.
  • Different aspects of facts: Each description should consist of 2 or more “facts” (Go to 2. Recommended Facts).
    Reject entries that did not have sufficient facts.

2. Recommended Facts

  • From which plant parentage was it cultivated?
  • What does the cultivar have to offer that the original plant lacks?
  • Garden usage, culinary use, economic usage, etc. if it is ut of the ordinary.
  • Special appearance. (Clearly express how it differs from other varieties. It is no need to describe it in detail because users can see the photos at the same time. Focus on the difference.)
  • The name origin: why this breed is called like this. (But for names consisting of color + other, please do not only explain the part of the color.)
  • The similarity to some popular breeds and how to distinguish them.

3. Avoiding introducing like:

  • Discuss common characteristics of the parental species, including the plant origin, physical appearances, size measurements (unless it’s a feature), and anything that makes it no different than other cultivars.
  • Discuss ways to take care, or propagate the cultivar.
  • Scientific synonym, alternative common name. These names are listed in our system in another section, please DO NOT mention them unless there’s an interesting name story behind it.
  • Widely cited “NASA Research” supporting the air-cleaning effects of plants is flawed. The air-cleaning efficiency of all the plants is later proven to be too low to be practical. Using any plant to absorb toxic chemicals in your room is not realistic, so please DO NOT mention any air-cleaning effects of plants in this section.

Note: some cultivars are hard to find any useful information. Requirements can be appropriately relaxed when facing those. Focused on garden use (maybe common in all cultivars) and appearance is permitted.

4. Check the Sensitive Expressions

4.1 Non-toxic

  • Reject the contents with no supporting link attached.
  • Reject the contents that their supporting link is not reliable.
  • Reject the contents if only you can find any information on the internet that claims that it is toxic.

4.2 Edible

  • Any expression related to eating should be considered as a piece of “Edible information”. Including but not limited to declare one plant can be a source of food, can make a salad, can make tea, work as an ingredient of wine/spirit/beer/cocktail, grown as a crop or a spice, its taste (is sweet, bitter, salty) without declaring it’s toxic. Of course, simply declaring some plant is edible is a piece of “edible information” too.
  • Reject the contents with no sales link from a large local or international commerce website. Unless it is a daily vegetable/fruit.
  • Reject the contents that their supporting link pointed to medical or other usages instead of eating.

4.3 Medical

  • Reject any expressions on indications and efficacy as a medicine.
  • Reject any medicinal description unless it is historical or has cultural significance. (Note: indications and efficacy are still not allowed in cultural and historical use.)

5. Check the Political or Legal Issues

  • Plagiarism: Reject
  • Politics, pornography, religion or racial discrimination, drugs, etc.: Reject
  • Marijuana, tobacco, etc. any positive description of their usage as an addict: Reject. E.g., Nicotiana is a source of cigarettes (nurture, OK), a source of premium Cuban cigars (“premium” has a positive meaning, reject), a great experimental material in molecular biology (positive, but not as an addict, OK).
  • Alcohol: writers could state that tequila is made from blue agave, but are Not Allowed to introduce how “good” tequila is.

6. Check the Usage of System Placeholders

If the writer failed to use the placeholders systematically, Reject the workspace.

Special Attentions
  • Local information in your country is highly recommended.
  • Use common names instead of Latin names whenever possible.
  • Italicize any Latin words (other than placeholders) that appear (e.g., parent plant names, etc.)
  • If you believe that the common name of the writing target is wrong (including singular or plural form), please Report it in the link below and we will change it in time.
  • If after thorough research, the plant given is not a cultivar, please explain in the comments and let us know.
Sample Description in English

Osteospermum ‘Pink Whirls’ (African Daisy ‘Pink Whirls’)

  • _COMMON_NAME_ is selected among African daisies for its unique look. Its pink-colored “petals” are pinched in the middle section, which makes them look like spoons【unique look】. And that is why it is called “Spooned Daisy” sometimes.【name story】