#AcademicTwitter recently offered these embodied metaphors about levels of engagement with sources in research writing. You may have learned in high school to “wave” at sources, where you’re citing just to cite, to fulfill a requirement or try to convince a reader you know the source. The ideal use of sources in critical writing is either “shaking hands,” where you couple the citation with a summary or other brief information that suggests surface level but clear understanding of the source; or “arm wrestling,” which cites a source to engage deeply with it and prove that you have a profound understanding of the source.
Dr. Dan Martin offers this explanation of the Works Cited page as a kind of textual DNA for your paper.