Brad Henderson
Brad Henderson teaches engineering writing and science writing 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 new 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 of this title through the UC Davis Library's subscription to Springer eBooks (Springer Link).
Recent essays/articles discussing Henderson's work as an author, innovator, and teacher include:
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"Clarity Begins at Home," by Brad Henderson, Last Word opinion piece, ASEE Prism Magazine, Dec 2019 #essay #engineeringwriting
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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 #C-STEAM #totalengineer
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"Remote Teaching: How to Rock Professional Communication," by Sharon Knox, UC Davis Dateline News, June 2020 #Zoom #businesswriting
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"For Engineers: Do the Math for Better Writing," by Dave Jones, Book Blog, UC Davis News, Jan 2020 #interdisciplinarystudies #GoAgs
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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 © 2012)--as one of twelve "literary engineers" currently writing and publishing poetry and fiction in the United States. His most recent creative publications are the poetry ebook/pbook, The Blue Devil: poems (© 2015) and the ebook re-release of his Phi KappaPhiaward winning rock 'n' roll novel, Drums (© 1997, © 2010), 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 2021. He has just begun storyboarding a new creative nonfiction work examining his childhood growing up in Davis, CA, during the 1960s. #BabyBoomerKid
Learn more on BradHenderson.net | author/educator/speaker/consultant
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