Advice - In The Form Of Rants

How do I give good criticsm?

[Sorry for being inactive. I've been all over this week. I've had all sorts XD]

I can't even begin on how much I ask myself this. For one reason, and one reason only.

It's more or less: 'how do I give criticsm without discouraging the person from writing', for me.

For a hypercritical person like me who happens to be a gramnar nazi (without being able to fix my own grammar (I know, the irony)), this is a pretty hard thing to answer.

Because, it usually comes down to this:

Blind praise. This usually involves me giving them more praise than I give myself, then proceeding to kiss their ass and screaming 'you have potential'. All that, despite the fact that I'm reading badly written, incoherent, recycled trash that I despise.

Being very vague. I'll see 10 mistakes per sentence, yet I'll only point out 3 mistakes in the entire chapter. This usually happens when I'm reading a book by someone who I can only assume English isn't their first or second language. It's because I know that English speakers are bad, but those a bit newer are generally worse. Like, a whole lot worse. (Please keep in mind I said generally. Also, it works the same vice versa.)

Honestly, giving criticism is almost as bad as receiving it, warranted or not. Do you know why? Because I do. Partially.

But, to give criticism is to give: advice, ways to improve, growth, experience, imput and opinion. Without it, none of us could grow beyond thinking we're the best or without the ability to improve.

So, the best way to give advice is to:
Praise (reinforce the fact that they are embracing or taking part in a field of artisic expression. It's not easy, far from it)
Pinpoint (give them things they can improve upon. No writer is perfect, but many are greater at hiding that fact)
Advice (give advice which will encourage and enable growth. Try to provide ways they can fix or better the issue, rather than saying 'it's there')
Then, once again, praise.

In school, you are sometimes taught to give 'advice burgers' or something along those lines. Because if you only give advice, it shows you don't see anything apart from the mistakes.

But, if it's a bumbling pile of crap or the absolute 'bee's knees', it may bee (see what I did there XD) a lot harder to do this. It feels almost impossible.

Well, that just means things will be in different proportions, that's all.