OK, I think this will work for you. Very simple, and there are probably more elegant ways of doing this, but I'm no master of AppleScript...

[vba]' The AppleScript reads:
'
' tell application "Finder"
' return processes
' end tell
'
' Note that double-double quotes are used to insert a single double quote into
' the text string ;-)

Sub Test()
Dim scrCode As String, scrResult As String

scrCode = "tell application ""Finder""" & Chr(13) & "return processes" _
& Chr(13) & "end tell"
scrResult = MacScript(scrCode)

If InStr(scrResult, "Microsoft Word") Then
MsgBox "Word is running"
Else
MsgBox "Word is not running"
End If
End Sub[/vba]