Irv Brendlinger
By Alma QuirogaIrv Brendlinger may be a teacher of theology and Christian history, but after interviewing him it became clear to me that his status as theologian does not disqualify him from caring about the literary quality of his students' papers. When I explained to him my intents for the interview, he took the initiative and did not wait for my prompting or questions to let me know what he finds crucial for a good paper. He said the first thing he notices in a student's paper is whether or not they proofread because he says it is very obvious to him. Likewise, he made it abundantly clear how much he appreciates it, and how much it can help a paper, when a student proofreads and polishes his or her paper. Conversely, he expressed how unfortunate he finds it when his students do not respond to the specific comments he makes on each of their papers and thus make the same mistakes over and over again. Irv is an excellent professor who makes it a priority to carefully read through and comment on his students' papers, and he articulated how much easier it would be for him and how beneficial it would be for his students if they would do what he suggests to them in his comments.
This is not to say that Irv cannot see past minor grammatical errors, but he did say that it is so unfortunate to him when a student has great content but their form is poor or underdeveloped. Content and form are the two main categories that Irv considers when grading and he says a balance of the two is what he is looking for in his students' papers. If the form is bad, then he can't address the content. And he considers content to be 'good' if it has clarity, accuracy and depth. He says what especially impresses him in papers is when there is evidence that a student is not merely regurgitating class lectures or book material, but that the student has actually interacted with the material and put some thought into what they are going to say. Creativity is rare, and greatly appreciated. It is what will take a paper 'over the edge' and earn his careful little 'plus' signs on the papers.