To use the full Report Fairy service, please read through the guide below. If you have any further questions or queries, don't hesitate to ask us for help.

The Report Fairy services is broken up into several parts. Please read through all of below, download the printer-friendly user guide, or click on the option that interests you the most.

Preparation
Dictation
Credit Purchasing
Uploading
Proofing
Completion
Additional: Postal submissions

Preparation
You may choose to dictate your reports over several nights, or challenge yourself to one big hit in one evening. Either way, preparation is everything. Through trial and error, we have discovered that the following techniques help:

• Mark your books! Reflecting the lesson objective in your comments helps you to make your reports very personal.
• Indicate the support given to children if possible.
• If using books as a stimulus for comments, put them in the ability groups that they are being taught in.
• Record your reports in pairs.

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Dictating
Speak in a normal, but clear, manner, indicating commas and full stops where possible (not essential, but incredibly helpful). We would ask that you spell any technical words that you may use, and also indicate any new paragraphs you would like.
Ensure the recording works, and allow an appropriate amount of space between your mouth and the microphone you are using, to avoid noisy plosives (deafening t's and p's).
Check every so often that your voice is clear and loud enough to be heard.
If possible, record a few seconds of silence, and listen back to discover any errant sounds lurking in the background. Washing machines, purring cats and EastEnders all have an impact on the recording!

• Using a PC
  We recommend using a free program called Audacity to record your reports with. It is simple to use, and if you make a mistake, it isn't too difficult to correct the mistake afterwards.
• Using a MAC
  GarageBand, part of the iLife software suite, has a podcasting feature that is perfect for dictating. Unfortunately, the built-in microphone doesn't have the strength or clarity needed, so we would highly recommend buying a microphone/headphone set.

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Credit Purchasing
When you have completed your dictation, making sure you have made a back-up of your recordings, estimate how many words you may have dictated. To help you out, please refer to this chart below, after counting the number of words in one minute of dictating, and noting how many MB's of dictation you have created.

So that we don't type up someone's reports, only for them to decide not to pay, we ask for a credit purchase. This is based on an estimate of how long your reports will be. Don't worry about this being hugely accurate, we simply run an electronic word count and charge according to the option you have chosen, to the nearest lower 50 (5,049 words would be charged as 5,000 words for example), taking away any credit you have already paid.

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Uploading
Once your recording has been made and credit has been purchased, you will need to upload your sound files to us. Although they do not compress particularly well, it is much easier of you put all of your recordings together in one folder. On a PC, right-click on this folder, and select 'send to'. Select 'compressed folder', and you will have created a ZIP folder.

We recommend using free online storage solutions such as www.box.net or www.xdrive.com to upload them, but if you have a particular favourite, or are aware of how to create a bittorrent, you are more than welcome to send us your data using these too!

Uploading is incredibly simple, but can take a while. The best time speed-wise is first thing in the morning, but for convenience, you might want to set this up to upload last thing at night. The sites recommended above have very clear instructions, should you get stuck at all. Once uploaded, reply to our email with details of where your files have been uploaded to, indicating any passwords (if any are needed). Then sit back and relax - the hard part is over!

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Proofing
Once we have received your files, we will download them and check they are suitable for use. If they aren't we will contact you as soon as possible. Barring that, we will set to work with typing up your reports. Once they are completed, we will then peer-proof them. This means that another separate member of staff will proofread them for any grammar and punctuation. While this is thorough, it is not a professionally-exhaustive service, and would encourage you to read through the proofs carefully once you receive them. Any uncertain words or phrases will be indicated in a red/blue font (red by default).

If you just wanted us to type up your reports, then our contract is complete upon payment. If you would like us to insert your reports into a template, then we would ask that you send back your proofs, with any alterations made by you, so that we can begin the insertion process. If this seems like a lot to remember, then do not panic, we will send you emails detailing the next step clearly!

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Completion
Whether you just want us to type up your reports, or design and fill your custom-made report templates for your school, we always send an email of completion when we feel everything has been done to satisfy you. If you are in any way unhappy with an aspect of the service, we would be delighted to discus this further with you, either on the phone or by email. Completion should be a happy ending for both parties, and we hope that completion with us leaves you with the desire to use the service again and tell your friends about us!

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Additional:Postal Submissions
You are of course more than welcome to record your reports onto a cassette, but please note that we charge extra for this service, and that cassettes can take up to three weeks to be returned (the time reports take to be typed up is unaffected by this).

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