Brad Henderson
Brad Henderson teaches engineering, business, and science writing & professionalism courses at UC Davis, as well as a freshman seminar on the psychology of drummers: rock, jazz, & blues.
Prior to serving on the faculty of the University Writing Program (UWP), Henderson gained over ten years of industry experience working as a design engineer for Parker-Hannifin Aerospace and technical education specialist for Hewlett-Packard Inkjet. He has also held lectureship positions with UC Irvine's and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo's Colleges of Engineering.
Henderson recently completed a 5-year-long project developing and test teaching a new math-based writing system for engineers (and other STEM professionals).
Highly applicable to global industry culture, the system uses the universal language of math to help both native and multilingual speakers of English improve and refine their workplace writing skills. His book, A Math-Based Writing System: Sentence Algebra & Document Algorithms, recently released from Springer Nature, presents the complete method. The book serves as principal text for Henderson's engineering writing classes at UC Davis, and also supports an experimental "STEM grammar" class, currently in development.
In addition to standard retail sales, UC Davis students, faculty, and staff can access free ebook copies (and heavily discounted print copies) of this title through the UC Davis Library's subscription to Springer eBooks (Springer Link). #equity #inclusion #studentsuccess
Recent articles/reviews discussing Henderson's work as an author, innovator, and teacher include:
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"A Math-Based Writing System for Engineers," [Book Review] by Jennifer Goode, Technical Communication: Journal for the Society of Technical Communication (STC), vol. 68, no. 3, August 2021 #MBWS4e
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"A Math-Based Writing System for Engineers," [Book. Review] by Alan Houser, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, vol. 64, no. 1, March 2021 #MBWS4e
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"Engineering writing instruction takes a math-based approach, [Book Review], by Richard Quinnell, Engineering Design News (EDN.com), October 2020. Global editions: EDN_ASIA, EDN_Taiwan #MBWS4e
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"Engineer, novelist, teacher: Alumnus’ career path has led him to teach engineers to write," by Meredith McGroarty, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences News, July 2020 #creativeSTEAM #totalengineer
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"Remote Teaching: How to Rock Professional Communication," by Sharon Knox, UC Davis Dateline News, June 2020 #Zoom #businesswriting #RnR
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"Drumming Engineer, A Writer at Heart," by Jocelyn Anderson, UC Davis Magazine, Nov 2019 #DrumsNovel #BlueDevilPoems
On-the-side, Henderson plays drums, practices yoga, and labors on a variety of creative projects--in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. He is featured in Engineers Can Write! by Tom Moran (IEEE Press)--as one of twelve "literary engineers" currently writing and publishing poetry and fiction in the United States. His creative publications include The Blue Devil: poems and the Phi Kappa Phi award winning rock 'n' roll novel, Drums, which received a jacket endorsement from world-class drummer Matt Sorum (Guns N' Roses, The Cult, Velvet Revolver, and Billy Gibbons).
Brad's memoir in verse, The Secret Cowboy: the life & times of the rebel poet beau hamel, will be published early on in 2022. He is currently storyboarding a new creative nonfiction book examining his childhood growing up in the 1960s; and also developing a WebTV series that interviews and celebrates engineers who put the "A"=art into STEM to make creative "STEAM."
Learn more at BradHenderson.net | author-educator-innovator-engineer
LinkedIn bradhendersonucdavis
Twitter @bradhenderson1
Brad Henderson on ResearchGate
M.A. in Professional Writing (MPW/MFA), University of Southern California, Los Angeles
B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, minor in English, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo