Alaina Spigner

English 102-125
Mr. Padgett
02/08/2015

Why is there a connection between bullying and suicide among adolescents?

I am interested in this research question because this is a topic that I am very passionate about. I
feel as though bullying can in fact lead to suicide among adolescents because of the tragedies
that have taken place over the past several years. This is an important issue that needs to be
addressed. If it is not addressed, I feel as though the amount of suicides that occur among
adolescents will continue to increase. This research question affects me personally because as a
child, I was bullied. Although I did not ever want to take my life, there have been dozens of cases
in which young adults who were bullied felt as if the only way for them to feel better was to
commit suicide. This is alarming to me because even though the issue of bullying is addressed in
schools, enough is not being done in order to ensure that suicides do not continue to happen. I am
qualified to write about this because I will be able to find all the information from reliable
sources that will be able to make my argument better.
Source 1: http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/bullying-suicide-translation-final-a.pdf
This source talks about the overall connection between bullying and suicide in adolescents
within the school system. The central claim of this article was that there is a connection between
bullying and suicide. The major evidence includes many facts and statistics about the subject.
The major values and interests at stake for the article include the necessary facts that talk about
the connection that DOES exist as well as having the provision of important statistics that show

how relevant this topic is to society as a whole. The source at hand is the CDC, which is a
credible source. The CDC, also referred to as the Center of Disease Control, is a government
approved agency that specializes in working in different areas of human health. The CDC is well
known and offers information about various subjects that impact daily human life.
Source 2: Chisholm, James S., and Brandie Trent. "Everything Affects Everything": Promoting
Critical Perspectives Toward Bullying with "thirteen Reasons Why". The English Journal 101.6
(2012): 7580. Web.
This source focuses on bullying more than suicide itself, even though suicide is also mentioned
numerous times. Major evidence in the article includes several ways in which bullying affects
society as a whole. It also discusses what bullying can lead to within a society and individuals.
The major values and interests at stake for the article include knowing how bullying can affect
individuals as well as how it occurs at all. The credibility and author of this source are in check
because this article comes from a journal that is known to be used when looking for credible
sources. The English Journal is well known and respected. It is also credible because it was
found through the schools database, which should show that it has undergone supervision to
ensure that the information it provides is accurate.
Source 3: Miller, sj. Speaking My Mind: Mythology of the Norm: Disrupting the Culture of
Bullying in Schools. The English Journal 101.6 (2012): 107109. Web.
This source focuses more on bullying in schools rather than the outcome that is also being
studied, which is suicide. The sources central claim is to burst the bubble that shows that
bullying within schools does not occur as often as usual. It provides evidence about how often
bullying actually DOES occur within schools. The major values of this article include the truths

that bullying does occur in schools. It also includes values that can be used through providing the
information that is needed in order to provide people with the ability to want to act and resolve
bullying from occurring within schools. This is a credible source because it also comes from The
English Journal. In addition, this is a credible source because it was published in 2012, which is
relatively valid since it occurred within the last 5 years.

Reflection: This research question is arguable because it is not known if there is a big connection
between bullying and suicide among common people. This is not an issue that is usually
discussed and it needs to be addressed. Some agreements among the sources I found included
statistics about how bullying did in fact lead to suicide. Different perspectives of the sources
affect my own by giving me both information I need that would be useful to my argument as
well as providing information that does not fully support my argument. I might need to revise my
research question to be more direct, or to just talk about bullying.
Alana,
You certainly are investigating a worthwhile topic here, that carries with it a gravity and urgency.
The reading youve done are also really compelling and show the investment youve given your
topic at this stage in the research process. While this topic certainly has urgency built in, Im not
so sure your inquiry question has the exigency. It seems intent on asking why or how often
bullying happens, but Im left with the so what question. So Im wondering if you can find an
inquiry question whose answer might carry that exigency with it. So, what can we do about
bullying? What are schools doing about bullying? What can schools do about cyberbullying?

Really try generating lots of questions as it pertains to your topic, find that nuance and that
exigency.