How do I create my bibliography using the Microsoft Word Referencing tool?

Once you have added your sources and citations into your work (see How do I insert a citation using the Microsoft Word Referencing tool?), you can generate a bibliography or list of references.

  1. Place the cursor at the end of your document where you want your bibliography or list of references to appear (you could start a new page by going to Insert > Page Break if required).
  2. Go to the References tab and click on Bibliography.

Citations & Bibliography section with Bibliography highlighted

 

  1. Choose which title you would like from the three options (Bibliography / References / Works Cited). A bibliography conventionally covers everything relevant you have consulted, whereas a list of references or works cited just covers the material you have actually cited.
  2. You will now see a bibliography or list of references, in alphabetical order, that contains all the sources you have added to this document. 

A finished bibliography using MS Word

 

  1. In order to ensure your references follow the Leeds Beckett Harvard guidelines, rather than the Harvard Anglia system used in Word, the only thing you will need to do is to manually add brackets around the date for each entry in the bibliography and remove the proceeding comma and full-stop after. For example:

Greetham, B., 2018. How to write better essays. 4th ed. London: Palgrave.

Would be amended to:

Greetham, B. (2018) How to write better essays. 4th ed. London: Palgrave.

  1. If you need to add a new citation after you’ve added your bibliography, follow the steps in How do I insert a citation using the Microsoft Word Referencing tool? and then click into the bibliography and choose Update Citations and Bibliography. You can also add further items manually.

Update Citations and Bibliography option highlighted

 

[Ask Us Home button]

-

Topics