I have just had the most exquisitely handcrafted conversation report returned to me. It must have taken my poor tutor nearly an hour to write! Either he is being far too diligent or I am being far too slack.
As we are both new to LingQ conversations we neither of us have much experience of these reports. Next time the tutor guide is amended could you please add sample writing and speaking reports for us?
Well, I could never spend one hour doing a report, but I try to be detailed. My approach is like this. When the student make a mistake, I write it down in chat skype chat. After the event is finished, I copy-paste my notes to the report and edit them, trying to give complete phrases.
I don’t have that much experience with conferences, since Portuguese is not too demmanded. But I tend to send the same phrases to anyone, because I think they were all in the same context and can benefit from each other’s notes.
If Steve agrees, I can post here one of the reports I did to him.
I have done that, too. I used to spend thirty minutes to one hour to write a conversation report. As I was said from Steve, it is not for pointing out all mistakes learners made. Five to ten suggestions are enough to learn from one event. We should not spend more than a couple minutes to write a report since we don’t earn extra. I tend to spend on a report more than I should be. So sample report will help me too!
I guess Helen talks about mine report 
In fact I was way too nervous, so I simply couldn’t keep in mind what was strong and when there were mistakes, neither could I perform an appropriate analysis to emphasize only essential points from our conversation.
So I simply decided to provide a full transcript of our session, accompanied with the audio file. One reason was that it took me much less thinking than typing I hope this could be of some help anyway.
But I understant it’s kinda cheating to supply a student with raw material instead of several concise suggestions.
I think I would work out my way of writing reports, so if I could see some nice example, it would be helpful to me!
By the way, Helen, I’m almost sure the audio recorder I used is responsible to our eventual call terminations. The free version of the recording plugin is limited to 15 minutes of recording, then it simply breaks down the connection. I could tell it because each of our recorded files has 14:59 duration
One should buy a full version of a Pamela call recorder to make longer recordings. Maybe some other skype plugin exists which could do that job for free.
As Emma says, 5 to 10 suggestions per student and a short comment is all you need. It should really take you only a few minutes per report especially after you have spoken to someone a few times before. And, it makes sense to send all participants the same list of suggestions. Feel free to copy the entire Skype conversation into the suggestions field. The student can very easily go through the text once it’s been imported and save the words and phrases they want. You don’t have to worry about removing names and times. They can be ignored very easily by the learner.
Ana, it would be great if you could post a sample report here.
Pavel, it sounds like you went above and beyond the call of duty!
I loved the report Vladimir! I learned a lot from it (including the Russian for my first sentence “hang on, I have a sock over my webcam”).
My only concern was that you might think “well, that was a waste of my time!” and refuse to write me another one.
Hi Pavel, try PowerGramo for recording. There is also a free version.
Since my Tutor leaves LingQ I try a some other Tutors and there are differences how they do Report.
I’m really satisfied how my gone Tutor did the report: Sometimes she gives me suggestion how to say things. Sometimes she corrects, what I said. In one Row she wrote on the left side the wrong expression and after a “-” then on the right side she gave me a suggestion how I should say it.
About 10 Suggestion I think is very helpful. The lowest number was 8 suggestions. The highest number was about 20 suggestions. I found her way to do the report very helpful.
I didn’t expect that a tutor tell me every mistake that I make (I make a lot 
) but I like to have some examples. Now I’m looking for a new tutor. I find it very helpful to have on the one side my wrong expression and on the other side the correct expression. I can better which like my errors are.
We have to be realistic. Considering what the tutors earn for their discussion it is not realistic to expect a long detailed report. If we paid the tutors more, and charged more, even fewer people would sign up. There are lots of totally free language exchange sites out there.
The tutors should put as much into their discussion report as they want. In a way they are promoting their own services and enticing the learner to come back. It is, however, quite acceptable in my vie to simply copy whatever items have accumulated in the Skype chatbox into the report and send it to all participants, with a short individual note to each, which should mostly be words of encouragement. I usually take the time to delete the time and other irrelevant stuff, and to correct my typing mistakes from the chatbox text, but that is , as I said, up to each tutor.
I have seen some free sites and have not been at all impressed by the quality. It seems to me that LingQ is better than that, and the fact that you have more control over the service offered to students is a big differentiator.
I think, personally, that in the longer term LingQ wants students who are paying a fee each month and who are quite clear what they expect to be getting for their money. That includes knowing in advance what a conversation report should look like. If people aren’t paying then they aren’t buying in.
I would have thought that, compared to courses that charge for tutoring, LingQ is very cheap. Perhaps in the longer term it could be a little more expensive and tutors could be paid a little more for doing a quality job.
I agree Helen and we will gradually get there. We have to grow one step at a time. I appreciate your enthusiastic support.