How I Read Like A Writer

The author (his name escapes me) of the article was trying to explain how one can read a passage and completely understand its meaning, and also dissect the passage and understand the author's meanings and intentions (whether subtle or obvious). For instance when reading an allegory such as "Pilgrim's Progress" or "Gulliver's Travels", one must look at the stories as word pictures and not necessarily take them word for word. Allegories are written with (sometimes) subtle undertones that the reader must delve deeper into to understand the true, hidden meaning/ideas that the author is trying to touch on. When we are writing, we can use some of these techniques that we have seen other writers use in our own writing. This isn't plagiarism because we aren't copying words from another writer, we are merely using the literary techniques that they use to add to our writing's physical, as well as literal, attractiveness.