Q:

How can I highlight paragraphs from text input in jquery

I'm starting to learn jQuery today.  I'm currently on 24th tutorial PHPachademy.  I'm having a lot of problems getting this particular tutorial to work correctly.  I'm pretty sure it's a semantic error >_<;;
Heres an Attempt JSfiddles
Lastly could someone explain why there this line to me?  
('" + search_name + "')

why are there so many +'s and '" in the line?  

A:

$('#names li').removeClass('highlight');

Instead of
$(#names li).removeClass('highlight');

You reference the #names variable instead of using the '#names li' string
Fixed fiddle

Lastly could someone explain why there this line to me?
  ('" + search_name + "')

:contains selector docs:

Description: Select all elements that contain the specified text.
  The matching text can appear directly within the selected element, in any of that element's descendants, or a combination thereof. As with attribute value selectors, text inside the parentheses of :contains() can be written as a bare word or surrounded by quotation marks. The text must have matching case to be selected.

Fiddle without the quotation marks 
By the way, since you're trying to learn jQuery
An important rule about jQuery is, jQuery shouldn't can can't replace javascript! it's an abstraction library above javascript. Don't over use it, this.value can bring you the value of input a lot easier and faster then $(this).val().
You can read more here

