BAYERO UNIVERSITY, KANO

FACULTY OF COMPUTING
CSC 3251- RESEARCH METHODS

EFFECTIVE USE OF MS-WORD IN CITATIONS AND REFERENCE GENERATION

INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, computers and the Internet are extensively used for virtually everything. Indeed,
the computer has become so pervasive in all aspects of human endeavour. There are so many
application programmes that are used by both computer experts and non-experts alike.
One of the programmes used by virtually every computer user is the word-processor, such as
Microsoft Word (MS-Word in short). Word processes are used in writing all sort of documents,
including projects and reports. However, the average computer user uses only a fraction of the
capacities of a word-processor, such as MS-Word.
We shall, in this brief lecture, explain and demonstrate how MS-Word can be effectively used
to facilitate academic writing, such final year projects by students. The computer helps us to
automate mundane activities. One feature of how MS-Word helps us to automate academic
writings will be discussed and demonstrated.

CITATIONS AND REFERENCES

Academic work is a continuous process. It involves continuously extending the frontier of
knowledge. To make any extension, one must know the current state of things. Thus, using
existing work is a key component of academic research and writing. However, while using such
knowledge, one must give credit as appropriate through citation. Section 18.1 of the Bayero
University General Examinations and Admissions Regulations (GEAR) specifies instances where
students are required to make citations as follows:
18.1 A student must cite appropriate sources of his/her ideas, facts, etc. In particular,
the following require citation by a student:
(a) Direct and indirect quotations, as well as paraphrasing and summaries.
(b) Opinions, theories, principles, ideas, critical methods, and so on that were
formulated by someone else.
(c) Data and evidence that are not collected by the student as primary data.
(d) Figures, graphs, tables, charts, photographs, drawings, illustrations, etc not
created by the student.
(e) Research sources that were gathered by someone else.
(f) Ideas, materials, information and so on collected from online sources.
(Bayero University, Kano, 2018)

Examples of citations in writing include: “(Borodo, 2023)”, written at the end of the material
cited; and “A study by Ambursa (2022) found that …”, written as part of the text. In these
examples, ‘Borodo’ and ‘Ambursa’ are the surnames of the authors cited, while ‘2023’ and
‘2022’ are the years they did the works cited, respectively. This is for authors who are persons.
The citation at the end of the quotation from GEAR is an example of a corporate author.

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 After making citation(s) in the body of the main text, one must then list all the References at
the end, where details are provided on all the works cited. In the two examples, above, the
References will show details about the authors and the publications cited.
When working on citations and references manually, one has to enter the citations in the work,
keep track of them, and generate the References. Many problems are upon encountered in this
regard. The problems include making citations, but omitting the sources in the references; and
omitting the citations, but listing the sources in the references. Both mistakes could arise after
further editing your work – for example, after adding or removing some materials. Another
type of error encountered with manual citations and referencing is mixing the citation styles –
especially when you get information from sources where different styles are used.
All these problems, and others, can be avoided by letting MS-Word assist you with your
citations and references.
The following steps in italics are from (Microsoft, n.d.). Bolded non-italics are further
explanations from me.
1. Put your cursor at the end of the text you want to cite.
2. Go to References > Style, and choose a citation style.

3. Select Insert Citation.

4. Choose Add New Source and fill out the information about your source.

Before filling out the information, you need to choose the type of source. The types include
Book, Book Section (Chapter), Article from a Journal, Conference Proceeding, Website,
Document from the Web, Electronic Source, Report, Interview, Film, Patent, etc. The most
widely used sources are Books, Journal Articles, Websites , and Web Documents.

The source type you choose will determine the information you need to fill out. Let us
consider what happens with the two most common sources – Books and Journal Articles.

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To cite a book, choose ‘Book’. You then must enter the following fields in the form displayed:
Author, (book) Title, City (of Publication), Publisher, and Year (of publication). There are
some optional fields including: Country, Volume, Number in Volume, and Editor.

To cite a journal article, choose ‘Article in a Journal’. You then must enter the following fields
in the form displayed: Author, (article) Title, Journal Name, Year (of publication), and Pages
(page range containing the article). There are some optional fields including: Publisher,
Volume, Issue, Year, and Month.

Note that example of what is expected for each field item is shown at the bottom.

It is advisable to check the box ‘Show all bibliography fields’ to see all the options.

Once you've added a source to your list, you can cite it again – so you do not have to enter the
details again:
a) Put your cursor at the end of the text you want to cite.
b) Go to References > Insert Citation, and choose the source you are citing.

1. To add details, like page numbers if you're citing a book, select Citation Options,
and then Edit Citation.

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Changing Citation Format
The default form of a citation is like ‘(Borodo, 2023)’ example given earlier. This is usually put
at the end of the cited material.You can change it to be part of the sentence structure [such
as “A study by Ambursa (2022) found that …”, or “According to Shehu (2021) …”], while still
maintaining it as a citation (to be included in References to be generated later). The last
screen shot (on the bottom of the preceding page) actually shows how it is done. After
generic citation, such as (Borodo, 2023), just click on it to edit it. Then choose ‘Convert
citation to static text’ to modify it the way you want, such as ‘According to Borodo (2023), …’.

Using Sources Across Documents

It has been mentioned above that you can use a source within a document many times over
without having to complete the fields each time – one completion is enough. You can even
do much more than this. Works cited in one document can be imported to other documents
(within the same computer, of course). You can then cite them in the new document without
entering their details. In most Windows-based computers, there is the ‘Manage Sources/
Citations’ button. Clicking on it will show all available sources on your computer. You can
then copy/move any you want to your current document. This would make them available
for you to cite. Activating the ‘Manage Sources/Citations’ will show you all sources available
in your current document. Those already used (ie cited) within the document are ticked (),
while those not used are not.

Create a References of Bibliography

With cited sources in your document, you're ready to create a bibliography.

1. Put your cursor where you want the bibliography.

2. Go to References > Bibliography, and choose a format.

Tip: If you cite a new source, add it to the bibliography by clicking anywhere in the bibliography
and selecting Update Citations and Bibliography.

WORKS CITED
Bayero University, Kano. (2018). General Examinations and Admissions Regulations (GEAR).
Kano: Bayero University.
Microsoft. (n.d.). Create a Bibliography, Citations and References. Retrieved October 2023,
from Microsoft: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-a-bibliography-
citations-and-references-17686589-4824-4940-9c69-342c289fa2a5