PGPR is the brainchild of Johanna Spiers, business owner, qualitative researcher and proofreader extraordinaire. Johanna loves running PGPR and working with her clients, and she appreciates how hard it can be to turn the thesis you’ve spent months and years working on over to her to edit and/or critique.
As such, we thought it might be useful for Johanna to share a bit about who she is, where her training comes from and how she came up with the idea for PGPR. We’re hoping this will help you feel confident that your work will be in good hands when you send it to us.
Johanna is happy to help with all your proofreading and feedback needs
Johanna says…
On getting into qualitative research
My first qualitative study was an undergrad IPA project that I completed under the guidance of Jonathan A Smith at Birkbeck University. The project was about academic mothers juggling their work and family demands. I was hugely lucky to be supervised by the man who created IPA; I found his insights and tutelage inspirational.
I came from a creative background – my first degree, completed back in the late 1990s, was in creative writing, and when I’m not helping PGPR students, I write fiction. I love exploring the nuances of words and delving into their deeper meanings. Plus, I’ve been drawn to understanding relationships and diverse perspectives since childhood.
As such, I found IPA’s combination of deep, idiographic textual analysis and psychological underpinnings hugely attractive.
Indeed, I loved doing that study so much that I applied to do my PhD with Jonathan as soon as my undergrad was over. My PhD – which was about the experience of living with and being treated for renal failure – led to three publications, which you can read here, here and here.
Johanna’s first qualitative project was about working mothers
On the qualitative projects she’s worked on:
Since finishing my PhD, I’ve worked on research projects at universities including Hull, Bristol, UCL, Birmingham and Surrey. The topics I’ve researched have tended to be related to health conditions – either physical or mental – and include areas like living with an ileostomy, the mental health of healthcare professionals, adherence to HIV medication and an evaluation of a dementia healthcare program.
While I have continued to use IPA, my first (and true!) qualitative love, I’ve also been fortunate enough to work on studies which required me to use a range of other methodologies, including thematic analysis, grounded theory, realist evaluation and even, on one shocking occasion, quantitative methods.
I’ve also co-authored several literature reviews, including an integrative review of postvention guidance and a rapid review of reviews of dementia healthcare programs (in press).
This experience means that I am well qualified to offer feedback on a range of studies and methodologies – so your work is in good hands when you send it to me.
Your work is in good hands when you send it to PGPR
Photo by Izzy Park on Unsplash
On her proudest publication:
Of all the research I’ve worked on, I have felt most passionate about the series of studies I completed with Dr Ruth Riley about various aspects of healthcare professionals’ mental health.
I love our NHS and feel very strongly that it needs to be better funded and the staff who work for it better looked after. As such, being able to speak first-hand to GPs, junior doctors and a range of other NHS workers about their jobs and mental health was a true privilege.
My proudest – and most cited! – paper comes out of one of those jobs. This is a paper I especially love because it highlights some of the struggles faced by NHS workers whilst also offering help to qualitative students, as I explain how to analyse one dataset (about the distress of GPs) with both IPA and thematic analysis.
You can read that paper here.
On the journey that started PGPR:
As I mentioned above, I started life as an editorial person rather than a scientist. After completing my degree in creative writing, I moved back to my hometown of London and worked in the editorial world, writing Teletext (remember that??) for various cable channels and then sub-editing copy on a range of magazines and newspapers.
This work taught me how to make words work in the most efficient way possible. At the same time, I continued to work on my fiction (an example of which you can read here, if you’re interested).
While I was doing my PhD, I worked on the QMiP Bulletin, eventually serving as editor for a brief spell. I think I rather terrified everyone else on the team by introducing glossy magazine-level proofreading standards to what was a volunteer position. I loved that work – combining my new psychology knowledge with my trusty editorial skills felt like a dream for me.
In 2017, I finished work on a postdoc study at Bristol and started applying for lecturing positions. However, my heart wasn’t really in the search – lecturing looks like arduous work (hats off to all the supervisors out there toiling away at the frontline!) and I was still plugging away at my fiction writing.
So I decided to see if any postgrad students wanted help proofreading their theses, something I felt uniquely qualified to offer.
I was amazed by the response – PGPR has been running ever since then!
PGPR has been helping postgrad students since 2017
On PGPR’s journey
PGPR has undergone several iterations in the nine years it has been running. At first, it was just me and my laptop. However, I was so quickly overwhelmed by clients that I started recruiting other qualitative and editorial experts to take on the work I didn’t have time for.
At one time, PGPR had 10 proofreaders on the books, a fantastic admin assistant and a business manager.
These days, we’re a more humble affair: it’s now just me and Astrid taking on work, and I’ve gone back to doing all my own admin, meaning you get the personal touch from the moment you contact us.
I love the proofreading work I do for all you lovely students. I get to read about such a range of fascinating topics. My clients are a warm, clever and funny bunch, and I feel lucky to be able to help them on their roads to success. I love hearing about vivas passed and papers published.
If you’d like Johanna to proofread some of your work or offer feedback, you can get in touch via the form below. She’ll be happy to hear from you!
