We cool?

How do you critique authors? Do you speak honestly or try to spare their feelings? Should writing be considered as strict of an art as others? You have to give reviews to get reviews, so should you be nice or honest?




I have to say that I struggle with these questions. While attempting to review the works of my peers, I find myself wondering what type of criticism I should lend. I cannot lie and say that while reading (no matter if it's a rough draft) I'm constantly thinking of rephrasing sentences, spell checks, punctuation errors, etc. I try to be subjective, but my brain doesn't exactly work that way. So where do I go from here? 




I want to be a part of the community and contribute, but I also cannot go against my urges as a writer. What is an acceptable way to tell someone they need A LOT of work without sounding like a jerk? For instance, I would rather have people be honest with me, but not in a "bashing" type of way. I want to know what needs improvement or where things fell flat. I want to know about typos and other formatting errors. I want to know whether I'm even close to being on the right track. However, as anyone else who's been writing knows, it's a growing process. Just because your first few stories or poems are poorly put together, doesn't mean it was necessarily bad.




*Sigh*




What would you do?