When I teach feedback, that's the virtuous cycle, if you will, that I try to get people
to adhere to. Describe what you see, share the criteria by which you would make a judgement,
offer an evaluation, and then offer some helpful advice about how to make improvement.
So good feedback begins by providing the person you're giving feedback to with a reality check, to
say "okay, here's what I'm seeing." If you first establish some criteria, any judgement
after that doesn't seem like a judgement of the person, it seems like a judgement of the
thing that you're trying to improve or that you're trying to help them with. And then,
finally, the act that really I think helps feedback become maximally useful, or "helpful"
as we like to call it in Eli, that really boosts your helpfulness rating, is offering
advice. Offering a way for the writer to make an improvement in what they're doing. If you
can offer a way to improve, to get closer to that goal, you'll be seen as not just simply
sitting back and rendering judgement, but lending a hand.