Close Readings

The article we read states that "when you close read, you observe facts and details about a text."  I believe that close readings has helped me with my writing, but i think i've always just naturally done this and never really thought so hard about it.  The goal is to aim on one passage at a time of a text and break it down into pieces.  You have to try to find new meanings to the words you think stand out in the passage, and analyze how different the meaning of the sentence then would be if you changed the word.  After this is done, it might help someone understand more on why the author used the word choice that he used.  "close reading requires careful gathering of data (your observations) and careful thinking about what these data add up to." Using close reading techniques can help a reader more understand what the author is talking about.