Disclosed are a computer-readable code, system and method for assisting in the preparation of a target document. The system stores a plurality of template documents which are each parsed into passages, typically paragraphs. The individual passages from the several template documents form a database of model passages from which a new document can be constructed. To retrieve a particular passage, the user describes the content of interest, or represents the content as a string of words and/or word groups. The system uses a word-records file to identify one or more descriptive passages having the highest match score with the user description. From these highest-matching passages, the user selects one or more descriptive passages for use in document construction.