"Made to Stick''

Some of the language in these documents is sexually explicit warns the Washington Post’s introduction to an excerpt of “The Starr Report: The Findings of Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr on President Clinton and the Lewinsky Affair.’’

I was reminded of this report when I read the introduction of the book “Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die’’ by brothers Chip and Dan Heath. The brothers, one an educator and the other a researcher argue that any idea can be made to stick or can at least be made sticker.

So why did the Starr Report come to mind? Like the popcorn example in “Made to Stick’’, Ken Starr had to grab and hold the attention of readers. He knew he had the law on his side. He also knew that the popular president had strong public support on his side. The prosecutor countered the president’s popularity by incorporating the classic principles of “Made to Stick’’ several years before the Heath brothers published their book in 2007.

The report(http://tinyurl.com/The-Starr-Report), which was excerpted in daily newspapers around the country, became an instant best-selling book. It provided an unexpected level of detail about the relationship between the president and Monica Lewinsky, a White House inter. The evidence was concrete including evidence of semen on the blue dress Lewinsky wore during a sexual encounter with the president. The report was credible because witnesses had testified under oath. Emotions ranged from pity, sorry and anger at the president to disgust that the president would actually be having sex in the Oval Office. Finally, the prosecutor told a good story. Unlike standard government reports, the Starr Report was a well-crafted narrative with that was so well crafted that it skyrocketed to the top of best-seller lists.

Applying the principles of “Made to Stick’’ to an incident that happened nearly 10 years before the book was published tells me that the book makes sense. There is some validity to it. The book has also reinforced some lessons I am learning in this course and in classes I’m taking to become a volunteer literacy tutor.

I will apply some of the lessons from “Made to Stick’’ to see if I can make them work. However, I am concerned that complex ideas and issues must be continually boiled down to very simple sound bites. What role does this approach play in contributing to a society that already resists exploring issues beyond the surface?