plain and simple, if you want an A, dont take zentner. no matter how intelligent you are and how hard you work, he is not open to any sort of creativity or any interpretations of things that aren't exactly what he is looking for. he knows what he wants, but what he wants is not clear and he wont help you find it because he feels that is giving away the grade. no matter how confident you are when you turn in your paper, you will end up with a B. on the first paper no one recieved over a B-. he is perhaps the most frustrating professor i have come across in my 3 years here. sure quizzes are easy, but quizzes account for only about 12 percent of your grade, where each paper is 25. his lectures are quite boring. our class spent a good 15 minutes on a couple occasions arguing with him about his grading style and his closed-mindedness when it came to our papers, and he would just get huffy and say "this is what i want, good luck". sure he is a smart man, but a smart man does not make a good professor. a good professor, especially for a writing class, is to grade you on your effort, writing style, and grasp of the concept....not on your ability to figure out exacltly what vague thing he is looking for. steer clear bruins....