Post date: Sep 17, 2017 10:11:54 PM
In the past week, we've made significant headway into the writing of our proposal. However, the biggest challenge came not in the research and actual writing, but in the outlining. One of the common threads in the feedback we received from all three of our advisers was to ask the question: "Is this relevant?" For example, in the background section, we should make the distinction between information that is good for us as writers to know, and information that is actually pertinent for readers of the proposal to know. Much of our information fell into the former category.
Our background outline can be read here. While it's approaching its final form, this project is ever-evolving and with every day our understanding expands, so expect it to change quite a lot!
We have also drafted our introduction, introduction to the background, and introduction to the methodology. Much of the information we initially wished to write about in the background was culled and cut down, and the remaining topics moved into the introduction of the background. After reading other IQPs, especially other Venice IQPs, we've seen a lot of the same stats and ideas as we had, just in the introduction. This makes sense as much of the information is not directly relevant and/or already known by a majority of the audience. Putting it in the intro, and not fleshing it out to the fullest extent, makes a lot of sense given that our main audience will be VPC members who are city officials and are well versed in the matters of tourist problems in Venice.
Lastly, we reached out to Mr. Emanuele Tosatto, a friend of Professor Carrera's and our main contact in Venice. He replied promptly and with a much needed update on the ZTL proposal (we were originally using data from 2015, which was significantly different). Especially useful in this proposal is the inclusion of laws regarding tourist management (specifically, restricting people from entering cities or other public places). This is especially useful when it comes to finding legal precedents set by other cities, whether in Italy or elsewhere in the EU, that would help make the implementation of the various tourist management proposals easier.
At any rate, we plan to speak with Mr. Tosatto over phone in the following week, and hopefully make some more significant strides in our project!