Request for Proposal

Plant Description – Review Guide

v.2.0.2-20211201

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 plant to the audience. Try to narrow the distance between unfamiliar plants and people, reducing alienation.

This section is the first section directly talking about the characters of the plant, so it is a “first impression” section. Interesting is in the first place, making an impressive and unique impression of the target plant is the key.

Daily usage or industrial value is encouraged, which is easy to echo the audiences’ memory of this plant. Reduce botanical description and measurement of the plants unless it is characteristic.

Basic Requirements

1. General

1.1  Word Count: Each description should consist of around 30-60 words. (For Japanese and Korean, around 60-120 characters, for Chinese, around 50-90.)
Reject the entries that did not match the lower limit.

1.2  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)

1.3   Avoid simple listing: including but not limited to geographical distribution and habitat. Authors should try to use generalized terms, e. g., use “Northeast Asia” instead of “Japan, Korea, Inner Mongolia, and Russian Far East”.
Reject simple listings of more than 3 items (countries, habitats) at one time.

1.4   Interesting Facts: Each description should consist of 2 or more “interesting facts” (Goto 2. what is an interesting fact?).
Reject the entries that have less than two “interesting facts”.

2. What is an Interesting Fact?

2.1  These facts are considered as interesting (Dos):

  • Historical use and cultural significance. Connection with local culture is highly recommended
  • Garden usage and why it is used like this (for garden plants)
  • Economic value (for crops)
  • Culinary use (for crops, vegetables, and spices)
  • Toxicity, invasive, and other harms
  • Insect/bird attracting (e. g., milkweed is the only food for monarch butterflies’ larvae)
  • For wildflowers, in which season or special ecosystem you can find them
  • The name origin: why it is called like this
  • The similarity to some most common plants and how to distinguish them
  • Other impressive characteristics that are hard to generalize (In many cases, these pieces of information are most attractive. If you can recall any like this, please add it to the description.)

2.2   These facts are considered as NOT interesting (Not Suggested but OK):

  • Simply mention the place of origin (it will be considered interesting only in some limited conditions, such as when it is highly invasive and you are chasing its origin; or declare the usage in a native garden, etc.)
  • Morphological description and measurements. (unless it is very uncommon in the plant world, or directly related to its usage.)

2.2   Do not mention these pieces of information (Don’ts)

  • Scientific synonym, alternative common name. These names are listed in our system in another section, please reject it unless there’s an interesting name story behind it.
  • Taxonomy information is neither interesting to common readers nor can it be wrong (because of the taxonomy system that has changed frequently recently), please reject any entry containing taxonomy information.
  • 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 reject any air-cleaning information.

3. Check the Sensitive Expressions

3.1  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.

3.2  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.

3.3  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.)

4. Check the Political or Legal Issues

4.1  Plagiarism: Reject

4.2  Politics, pornography, religion or racial discrimination, drugs, etc.: Reject

4.3 Marijuana, tobacco, etc. any positive description of their usage as an addict: Reject. E.g., Nicotiana tabacum 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).

4.4  Alcohol: writers could state that tequila is made from blue agave, but are Not Allowed to introduce how “good” tequila is.

5. 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., genus 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.

Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vO4wADpXiyJdfwnO4FWJiu0CL_1etZ4zdxapqGraE2U/edit?usp=sharing

Sample Descriptions

Tanacetum vulgare (Tansy)

  • _COMMON_NAME_ (_LATIN_NAME_) is a fragrant herb that has a scent similar to rosemary 【special character】. It was cultivated since Ancient Greece【History】, and its essential oil is still widely used today 【economical usage, while AVOIDed talking about their indications and efficacy in aromatherapy】. But take care, internally taking either _COMMON_NAME_ or its essential oil is toxic. 【toxicity】

Callistemon citrinus (Crimson bottlebrush)

  • _COMMON_NAME_ is a shrub commonly found in swamps and near rivers【When and where can you find them】. You can easily recognize this plant by its unique red flowers, shaped like a bottlebrush【special look】, hence it got the name “crimson bottlebrush”【name origin】. The flowers produce sweet nectar which is a source of food for numerous species of birds【wildlife attraction】.