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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43720
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

My answer is that you should **read widely** and then **write and cite** , because you want the foundation you're building upon to be rock solid. The risk of writing first and inserting later (which is a common approach and easier) is that if you write your paper first, (telling yourself you want the flow of it), you'll find yourself wanting to cherry pick citations (whether they're good or bad) to fit your existing paper.

As a psychology student, I'm sure you see the problem with cherry picking sources?

Write and cite. At the end of the paper, you will still need to go back and add in additional sources.

You're not writing creatively in these assignments. You're not writing fiction, it's not stream of consciousness. It's closer to technical writing. You're not creating a persuasive argument in the way you were taught in school. You're not using rhetoric, not to the same extent anyway. You're synthesizing rigorously tested ideas into a new framework. It's different.

I urge you to view your paper as 50-90% 'existing knowledge and work' and 10-50% 'your framing of that.' Your job is to take what has been established in the field and bring it together in a compelling way to help people see your thesis.

Original score: 7