In the dim and distant past I once worked as a police trainer. The word ‘trainer’ is important as five years earlier, when I had been a raw recruit myself, we sat behind desks and were front-loaded law by ‘an instructor’.
But things had moved on and, as a trainer, it was my job to keep the learning ‘student-centred’ and life relevant. Instead of weekly pass/fail exams, progress was measured by peer and trainer feedback, so this feedback had to be well structured and formal. With experience and hindsight I feel this six-rule structure could, indeed should, be applied to the giving and receiving of creative writing feedback, especially in a workshop environment: