Context: a fellow writing specialist books a scheduled meeting via Penji with me being the Writing Specialist conducting the session. The other specialist will be in the dynamic of a student as opposed to a fellow WC Specialist. 

Prior to a session, the fellow specialist will give me a notice of when they are going to schedule a session. In events where I feel unable to be in a session, I am fortunate enough to be in a space to say "no". If I do, say, decline their request, I am never direct:

• “I think that it’s best if someone else takes this one…” 
• “I really don’t think now is a good time…”, 
• “I’m really sorry for the inconvenience”.  

► [When starting the actual session]

When I am engaging in feedback with a fellow specialist, there is a shared knowledge in giving feedback. At the Writing Center [WC], the methods of giving such feedback are “note, react, and ask”.

“I noticed that this was an incomplete sentence”,  [Note]

“I feel like as a reader, I was not understanding your main idea when reading it.” [React]

“Could you please expand or tell me what you wanted this sentence to convey.” [Ask]

The other specialist and I will both be familiar of this format. In addition to the comment, I will add encouraging words like “very” or “really”, in front of the praise such as “I think your work is really engaging, as I feel completely immersed and understand your ideas…” or “this work is very strong”  in order for the comments to project the commitment I have towards their work. 

If I am close to the coworker, my language becomes a lot more true to my casual self, I will say:
“Oh, this paper is giving...”/ “This was a complete slay!”

Once I make this comment, I wait for the coworker to either move past the joke or to participate in that same coded language if I want to continue talking in this dialect.

When I give critical feedback, I will use the "cushioned" language such as “I think this part is really good, however...". When criticizing I never tend to go straight into criticism, there is always a buffer:
“As I was reading, I found this to be a bit confusing…” or “I think I feel like this might be…”

I usually end with a reiteration of the praise, to make it a sandwich and the coworker doesn’t feel discouraged. When I communicate the reiteration, I tend signal again and reiterate, “Yeah, but like I said before, I do think…” & [See: Actively Trying Avoid the Awkward Moment When There is No Awkward Moment]