Maldonado 1

Jaden Maldonado

Professor McCann

English 1301.129

15 November 2023

A Rhetorical Analysis on Ways to Stop Bullying in Bangladesh Academic Institutions

“On average 35% of students are being bullied in academic institutions in Bangladesh”

(“Bullying Among University Students in Bangladesh”). There were 32.6 million students

enrolled into fall classes in 2017 (Education Policy Data Center | Making Sense of Data to

Improve Education). That means that 11,410,000 students were bullied throughout the school

year. Bullying has been a phenomenon for many years; however, the number of students being

bullied has increased drastically. Bullying has increased over the last three years because

students still have trouble expressing themselves and dealing with stress because of the COVID

pandemic. Educational institutions have tried to prevent bullying, yet they have not found the

correct ways to completely stop bullying in schools. Chowdhury uses this article to bring light to

a topic that was forgotten due to the recent events in the world. Author Chowdhury is a lecturer

at the Southeast University in Bangladesh and has 7 years teaching undergraduate and

postgraduate students while publishing many different articles. The author Chowdhury uses

ethos to establish credibility, pathos, and logos in “Bullying of Students in Academic

Institutions” to successfully conclude the horrible problems with bullying and solutions of how it

can be stopped in academic institutions in Bangladesh.

To begin with, author Chowdhury uses ethos to establish her credibility on the topic of

bullying. Chowdhury cites work from other experts in the field of either education or psychology

to help her argument. For example, Chowdhury mentions from different studies that bullying has
 Maldonado 2

many factors that trigger students to participate in this act (125-126). This helps her credibility

on the topic by showing the readers that she knows why most bullies start harassing other peers.

These studies help back up the information of the different types of ways she gives to stop

bullying by making the triggers a center point of how the problem can be stopped. Author

Chowdhury also uses her own personal experience on the topic to establish her credibility. For

example, Chowdhury has been teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students at a university

in Bangladesh for seven years. This builds her integrity by showing the experience she has in the

field of education, which means that she has experience stopping bullies before. Also, this

information makes readers feel secure that the information is from someone that has seen

bullying happen firsthand. As has been noted above, author Chowdhury uses ethos to establish

her knowledge on the topic and make readers feel that Chowdhury is a trust source.

Moreover, author Chowdhury strengthens her argument that bullying can be stopped in

schools with the use of logos. Most students say that bullying is something negative, which can

hurt not only the students but the school itself. For example, Chowdhury states, “Around 95% of

the participant students reported that bullying was perceived by them as being a negative issue”

(127). This example uses logos to show readers how most of the 60 participating students believe

that bullying is something that is not supposed to be in school. Also, this makes schools see that

students feel that bullying is destroying schools for them. Although, academic institutions are not

doing enough to cut out the problem. For instance, author Chowdhury mentions how more than

half of the students said that their institutions have tried to do something to prevent bullying, yet

it still is taking place (128). Logos help this sentence get its message across by making readers

see that even though action is taking place in academic institutions, it is not enough to stop

students from being harassed by their peers. However, Chowdhury gives recommendations to the
 Maldonado 3

institutions on how bullying can be prevented in school, which gives readers more knowledge on

how bullying can be taken down. As a result, author Chowdhury uses logos to make readers see

that even though the institutions are not doing enough about bullying, there are ways to stop it.

In addition to swaying readers with the use of logic, author Chowdhury uses pathos to

make readers see the ways in which bullying affects students mentally, physically, and

emotionally. Bullying can affect students by making them feel less confident in themselves and

also struggle to keep positive relationships with friends and family. To illustrate this, Chowdhury

says how bullying can lead to many negative conditions such as anxiety, depression, lowered

self-esteem, and suicidal thoughts, which can affect the victims for the rest of their lives (126).

The use of these strong words makes readers feel empathetic because readers see that bullying is

one of the most horrible experiences a person can have. These strong words also make readers

feel hatred toward the bullies for causing these devastating problems for the victims. Not only

does Chowdhury make use of strong words, but cases of students losing their lives to bullying. In

particular, Chowdhury mentions how students have had their lives taken by peers due to bullying

reaching an excessive point (123). This statement pulls at the readers’ heartstrings because

nobody wants to see a young life be taken away due to peers’ constant harassment. These deaths

give readers a sense of grief over the fact that they could have been prevented if educational

institutions had tried to find a more stable solution.

Hence, Chowdhury gives different strategies on how bullying can be stopped. For

instance, Chowdhury mentions that a change in classroom culture, such as teachers using less

abusive words while talking to students, can help education institutions reduce bullying cases

(129). This uses pathos by giving readers a sense of confidence because it shows that institutions

can do something to stop these horrendous cases from happening again. Also, the example makes
 Maldonado 4

the reader feel satisfaction that the problem can be solved. As shown above, Chowdhury uses

pathos to show readers that academic institutions need to do more to prevent these devastating

situations from happening again.

In conclusion, Chowdhury is successful in using ethos, logos, and pathos to argue that

bullying is a horrible experience that many have to suffer through and ways it can be stopped in

educational institutions in Bangladesh with her article, “Bullying of Students in Academic

Institutions.” She is able to do this by providing the audience with different studies from experts

and personal experience on the topic to establish her credibility. While making readers see the

students’ belief on bullying and the ways it can be stopped through the use of statistics from her

study. Then Chowdhury makes sure to add strong language that evokes the audiences’ emotions

throughout the article to make the audience empathize with the victims. Bullying is a

widespread problem that schools need to remove completely from academic settings. This article

is important because it spreads awareness of the problem that has been affecting students for

years and will continue to affect students for generations to come. Institutions should be able to

make changes on how they can prevent bullying through the use of this article.
 Maldonado 5

Works cited

“Bullying Among University Students in Bangladesh.” Bangladesh Post,

bangladeshpost.net/posts/bullying-among-university-students-in-bangladesh-108880.

Chowdhury, Faieza. “Bullying of Students in Academic Institutions: A Qualitative Study.”

Educational Process: International Journal, vol. 9, no. 2, ÜNİVERSİTEPARK Limited,

June 2020, pp. 122–32. https://doi.org/10.22521/edupij.2020.92.4.

Education Policy Data Center | Making Sense of Data to Improve Education.

https://www.epdc.org/.