My writer's wordshop group is in the midst of editing our poems and writings to make a booklet for the holidays. We bring our creative offerings to be critiqued or criticized by other writers in our group, but I hate those words as they imply judging. In fact that's probably why I don't like sports because there has to be a winning and a losing team. In my world, we would all be winners just because we participate. So trying to use that philosophy in my writing group is a challenge.
In reading someone else's poem you could give suggestions kindly and your feelings about their offering. Like...when reading your piece, I felt moved by your experience. I liked this part but perhaps you could use a different word here that would be stronger. If the writer likes your suggestion, she could incorporate the idea into a revision.
But just remember that you can't please everyone, you can only (ultimately) please yourself-that was a song popular years ago. Most of us novice writers are all too eager to please and conform to what we think others expectations of us are, but we need to value our own viewpoint and uniqueness. This relates to life also. What do you think?