The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of the AVID College Readiness Essential Skill4: Citation Circles in teaching college level developmental writers how to properly engage with and integrate academic sources into their essays. The purpose of the research is to ease students into appropriate use of sources in their academic writing by introducing, practicing, and re-practicing the Citation Circles method. Though designed for AVID College Readiness, this activity can follow the reading of any text or lecture—or it can be used in relation to student experiences. After consultation with the instructor teaching the class, as well as the developer of the activity, the Citation Circle method was tested in a developmental writing class at a community college in Orange County, California. Two runs of the activity were tested with different types of academic writing with a class of developmental writers. The results indicate that if used regularly, the Citation Circle activity can help students become more comfortable with quoting, summarizing, and paraphrasing academic sources in their essays.
