I don't mean copy to plagiarize another's work, but simply as a practice exercise. To examine and understand the work in a higher detail that reading and rereading can't give you. I haven't done it myself, however, I'm thinking if you copied a short story for example, say you copied ten, wouldn't you gain a higher sort of subconscious feel for structure? You begin to get a greater feel for what makes stories work. It may just be easier to plan out work if you did it: memories to fall back on because you know such and such author wrote like this or that. For a novice writer wouldn't it give him/her a head start over other people stuck in same race?