An approach is provided for creating a new document. Keywords specifying a subject matter of the new document are received. Metadata of documents is determined to match keyword(s) included in the received keywords and the documents are retrieved. Based on a section being created in the new document, a ranked list of the retrieved documents is generated. A selection of a document included in the ranked list is received. The selected document is added to the new document. The keywords are refined based on the added document. Based on the subject matter and the refined keywords, the new document is completed by repeating the steps of determining the metadata, retrieving the documents, generating the ranked list, receiving the selection, and adding the selected document.