The basics of Laning and Zoning

Summoners rift is a map dominated by players who can control their lane and later on, large portions of the map.

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Basic Terms:

Lane: One of the three paths that minions take to attack the enemy nexus.
Last Hitting: The act of getting the last hit on a minion to acquire gold
Zone: A defined area that can be static or dynamic in which something/someone has control of the area (zone).
Warding: The act of placing wards in strategic locations to gain knowledge about portions of the map hidden by fog of war or brush cover

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Laning:

Laning is the most basic part of Summoners rift and is what really needs to be solidly practiced and built upon.  Laning is, at its very core, the act of defending the towers within the lane from enemy minions and champions. Minimally the champion in lane wants to defend the tower from any damage however the maximum potential in lane is much, much more than just defending. The lane provides opportunities to the champion(s) in lane. Farming, zoning, experience gain, potential kills, tower kills and global pressure are all parts of laning that have a huge affect on the outcome of the game.

Farming is different in every lane but always shares one single truth, last hit as many minions as possible. Aiming for 100% CS is the goal, and while that is an absurd goal the idea is to get as many as possible because it will be the main, reliable income for the champion. Farming is different for top, middle and bottom because of the types of champions that are taken into each lane.

Top will usually have a melee champion which means last hitting will be close quarters and generally by auto attack or a low/no cost skill if needed. Middle will be by auto attacks and spells, mostly spells as the game progresses. Blue buff will help the mid laner gain cs as mana will become irrelivant and thus farm becomes a matter of timing rather than mana conservation. Bottom should see the AD carry last hitting minons with auto attacks and rarely using spells to clear waves if there is a need to push/counterpush the minons.

Experience is generated from being around enemy minons when they are killed, so farming generates EXP as well as gold. Farming is so reliable for both EXP and gold that in high elo play, the person with better farm gets the edge and generally can use that miniscule advantage to win the lane. 

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Zoning:

Zoning is a very advanced form of controling the lane. Zones are established around towers and champions within the lane. The more powerful and dangerous the champion, the bigger the zone becomes. The idea behind zoning is to deny the enemy champion farm and experience therefore spiraling and advantage out of control.

If you get ahead in lane by a kill, significant farm or just early champion strength, the best way to use that lead is to zone out the enemy and deprive them. Zoning out an enemy is done by standing behind the enemy caster minion line and getting last hits with auto attacks while using spells to keep the enemy out of the experience zone. Be warned that zoning out an enemy puts you at risk for ganks and it is neccisary to ward so you can safely zone out the enemy. 

Think of it like this, anything that gives vision has a zone. Wards, minions, champions all give vision in fog of war and therefore create zones. The size and strenth of said zones are determined by the power of the vision.  A fed champion has a large zone where a underfarmed champion gives a very little zone based mainly on the utility and damage they can output safely (not much). 

Ultimately to gain map pressure and start pushing towards a win the tower must be destroyed. Destroying towers is not a hugely diffucult task but do not get over zealous as any lead you have can slip away if you die and fail to destroy a tower. Once you and your team have killed a tower, map pressure and zones are redistributed as the enemy team will no longer feel safe going into areas without a tower to defend them. This redistribution makes downing middle and bottom tower significant as control of the enemy blue/red and dragon become far more favorable to the team who has both towers down. 

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