Direct quotations...or not

Some of my students struggle with using citations without using direct quotations. They ask me how to use a citation without using a direct quotation.  In a nutshell, it works like this...in APA 6th edition, by the way...

Here is a source I have selected somewhat at random from the World Wide Web after a quick Google search of cloud computing risks:

Grimes, R. A. (2013, March 19). The 5 cloud risks you have to stop ignoring. Retrieved from http://www.infoworld.com/article/2614369/security/the-5-cloud-risks-you-have-to-stop-ignoring.html

Here is a screenshot of the words that I could use in a direct quotation, or preferably, put into my own words. The arrow points to paragraph 6 in the article. 

Using a direct quotation, I could write and cite this:

According to Grimes (2013, para. 6), “One of the key tenets of public cloud computing is multitenancy.”

Another way to use a direct quotation is like this:

“One of the key tenets of public cloud computing is multitenancy” (Grimes, 2013, para. 6).

Without using a direct quotation, I could write this same idea like this:

According to Grimes (2013), with public cloud computing, customers share computer resources.

Or perhaps this:

Grimes (2013) explained that computer resources are shared with public cloud computing. 

Or even this:

Grimes (2013) explained that organizations that use public cloud computing will share computer resources with other organizations. 

Another way I could write it without a direct quotation is like this:

With public cloud computing, customers share computer resources (Grimes, 2013).  

I encourage my students to write in their own words and use direct quotations only when the author's words are unique or memorable.