Agatha Christie Research Paper

Agatha Christie and Her Struggle with Dysgraphia

“Dysgraphia is a condition that causes trouble with written expression,” as stated by Erica Patino. This disease has a major impact on the subject’s life and can even affect simple, everyday tasks (Patino). Agatha Christie, a world renowned author, was able to overcome dysgraphia by persevering and never giving up (UM).

Dysgraphia is a disease that affects a person’s ability to write. This makes it incredibly difficult to be able to express one’s thoughts in writing (Richards 67). Dysgraphia is categorized into five different symptoms: visual-spatial, language processing, spelling and handwriting, grammar, and the ability to organize language. Visual-spatial causes the writer to run words

into one another and have complications while organizing sentences left to write. Another category is fine motor, which causes the subject to have trouble tracing different patterns, texting and keyboarding, and issues with everyday tasks. The third main class is language processing, which makes it difficult to understand and follow specific rules and directions. Spelling and handwriting also prove to be difficult with dysgraphia. For example, most have a hard time understanding certain spelling rules and picking out misspelled words. In addition to all of these, most dysgraphics have dilemmas with grammar. To demonstrate, most do not understand punctuation, will often confuse verb tenses, incorrectly capitalize, and form terrible run-ons. Finally, people with this disease will struggle to organize and form expressions (Patino).
This condition will also affect many skills and abilities of a person. For example, children and teenagers in school will regularly have illegible handwriting, multiple spelling mistakes, and uneven print.Furthermore, students may also fall behind on schoolwork and have difficulty while taking notes or writing on assignments. Other than just affecting children, dysgraphia causes weak fine motor skills and have complications while doing everyday tasks. Emotionally, people with dysgraphia feel frustrated and stressed about their challenges, causing a low self-esteem that prevents them from socializing (Patino).
Scientists are unsure about many of the causes of this condition and how people contract it.

They believe it has something to do with genetics, but there is no real answer to why people contract this condition (Patino). Symptoms of dysgraphia affect around five to twenty percent of the population (Pechman). Dysgraphics may also have problems with their memory. “A child may have trouble with what’s called orthographic coding,” Erica Patino explains. “This is the ability to store unfamiliar written words in the working memory. As a result, he may have a hard time remembering how to print or write a letter or word.” There are many diseases related to dysgraphia, including dyslexia, many language disorders, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and dyspraxia (Patino).

When going through the diagnosis, the subject has to go through a series of tests before they are labeled with dysgraphia. Many of these analyses will consist of a professional measuring the subject’s fine motor skills and written expressions (Patino). Professionals will also study some telltale signs of this condition, such as cramping of fingers, odd positioning of the paper or body, excessive erasing due to letter form, and inconsistent letter form and slant (Richards

63-67).
Agatha Christie started having trouble well into her career in writing when she began to get confused while writing her novels. Although Christie had always said she was the “slow one in her family,” this was different (HRF). Dysgraphia can cause people to start telling a story in the middle, give vague descriptions, and have trouble getting to the point. This condition has no real cure. But, there are multiple ways to overcome this disease (Patino). Christie was able to get better little by little with help from doctors and specialists (HRF). As writing and spelling become more and more difficult, she had to hire a helper to write the stories down as she read them. Christie continued to persevere and write new and interesting novels throughout the rest of her career (UM).
Agatha Christie had many accomplishments throughout her career as an author. She became known as the “Queen of Crime” and wrote over sixty-six mystery novels. Her book “And Then There Were None” sold more than one hundred million copies, and her works have been the third best-selling in the world behind Shakespeare and the Bible. Christie has even gotten multiple awards, such as the Edgar Grand Master Award and the Edgar Award for Best Play. Equally important were the Anthony Award for Best Writer of the Century and the Anthony Award for Best Series of the Century that were granted to her. Christie was even appointed as the Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1956 New York Honors (Famous People).
In conclusion, dysgraphia is a brain disease that affects a person’s ability to write. This condition has greatly affected many people's’ lives, including the world famous author Agatha Christie. She was able to overcome this disease by never giving up and continuing to do what she loved.