1. An adaptive method for obtaining representative text items from a plurality of text items in an active task, each of the plurality of text items having a plurality of attributes, the method comprising the steps of: (a) for each of the plurality of text items, identifying each of the plurality of attributes; (b) for each of the plurality of text items, assigning a weight to each of the plurality of attributes, wherein at least two of the plurality of attributes are assigned different weights; (c) for each of the plurality of text items, calculating an accumulated weight by accumulating the weight assigned to each of the plurality of attributes; and (d) ranking the plurality of text items based on the accumulated weight of each of the plurality of text items.