“Research has shown obesity increasing in all parts of the world,
so it is not just a problem of wealthy countries, as is often believed.”
I came across this sentence the other day and had a small discuss with people.
Some thought it was awkward and needed a change, some didn’t.
It was a tie so I decided to bring it up here and see what natives think.
Please share your thoughts.
Colloquially seems totally fine to me. If I were copy-editing for a more formal context, I’d wonder about using “obesity rates” or “rates of obesity” or “increasing in frequency”. If I think about it, “the obesity is increasing” is a bit odd, but if I don’t think about it, it’s ok.
Edited to add: Canadian English.
I believe that’s an appeal to authority (whose, or what, research?) followed by a sweeping generalization, (all parts of the world = everyone everywhere) and topped off with a false assertion.(increasing implying we already suffer with obesity)
It’s not a real research. This is a made up sentence in grammar test where students need to fill in “Research has… countries, __ is believed.”
I filled the answer in ‘Cause that’s not where the problem lies.
It’s the structure of the sentence. Or perhaps the word choice. I do have some thoughts that I’d like to share but I’m just gonna wait for a while longer ‘cause I don’t want there to be any bias. I’d like to know your first thought when you see this.
But you make a good point. This would be a lousy report. Who ever wrote this needs to retake their essay writing class.
Oh and please let me know you if speak AE or BE. For statistics.
AE. I don’t think you can use show+object+gerund here, since “show” is being used to indicate what the research demonstrated to be true. It should be “… has shown that obesity is…”
AE. I always say style =/= grammar. The “problem” may be obesity, or it may be research (or it may be the world). Other than that, the sentence is clear enough. 
That’s what I thought.
Personally I would say “research has shown an increase in obesity.”
“Research has shown obesity increasing” makes me wonder if it was a foreigner who wrote this.
And I thought the “increasing” here is a participle construction rather than a gerund.
Let’s say if it’s a participle construction:
(a) I heard you singing in the shower the other day.
^got no problem with this.
(b) Research has shown people singing in the shower.
^somehow sounds like an unfinished sentence to me.
(c) Research has shown people singing in the shower are more likely to live longer.
^better
And it’s not just that a clause would sound more natural (at least to me) with “research has shown”
It doesn’t go with just any clauses.
Here’s some ideas I shared on another forum. Sadly I only got one involved in the conversation, that’s why I’m also posting it here.
It’s kinda interesting that sometimes a clause is just better than a gerund/participle construction.
But it seems like if not pointed out, some would accept this sentence just fine.
The obesity is increasing is totally odd.
Please take a look at the link I posted in the previous reply. Thought it might be interesting.
The word “increasing” just has a certain quality that makes me reluctant to use it in this sentence. But it doesn’t apply to all Ving.
I don’t bother worrying about it. It’s just verb+ing either way. Technically, fair enough though.
Yeah, you might say “The TV program showed people singing in the shower.” which obviously works. But the research isn’t “showing” something in anything like that kind of way.
Yeah but I was told it’s not participle construction… just wondering what it is.
I was just trying to think of an example thatd work here. Seems like this is a bad one.
How about
(d) Research has shown earth spinning at the speed of 100 mph.
^it would work fine as a title. But if you use this structure in the original sentence along with “, so it’s not just a problem…”
Still feel like it’s unfinished.
I don’t see how it’s not a participle, at all. It’s relating something happening to obesity.
To me, it’s not that the research has actually “shown” the earth spinning, so that we can see it spinning. It has shown that it is spinning, in fact.
So somehow this sentence structure works better with a clause. At least for some of us.
Wonder if there’s an explanation for this. Why or when is it better to use a clause than a participle construction.
‘Cause theoretically all clauses could be turned into a participle construction.
I googled it and got nothing. It’d be really helpful if anyone’s got a book/article about this.
Didn’t think of it that way. Interesting point.
On second thought
(e) Research has shown that the earth is spinning at a speed of 100 mph.
^still awkward
(f) Research has shown that the earth spins at a speed of 100 mph.
^so much better.
The more I think of it the more i feel we should use present simple tense.
To the others who think the original sentence works just fine, what would you write if you hadn’t seen this yet. Would you write something like the original one or would it be completely different?
Is this not just a case of reported speech + SVOMPT + another independent clause which could be better separated by a semi-colon? The reported speech is just using the middle voice. The issue seems to me is that after the reported speech using middle voice, there is no main verb which immediately follows. I’d have to think of a situation where we use reported speech followed by a dependent clause…interesting.
It is indeed interesting, that’s why I just can’t drop it after all these days.
There’s 2 ways to see this sentence
Research (S) has shown (V) obesity (O) increasing in all parts of the world. (Participle construction describing O, or perhaps it falls in the definition of M here?)
It has SVO so it’s a complete sentence itself and hence grammatically correct
But If we are expecting a clause here:
Research has shown [obesity (S) increasing in all parts of the world (participle construction)]
There are no verbs.
And this is where I got the unfinished feeling
I don’t think this is a grammar problem but rather Choice of words.
And about middle voice, I thought that means yourself herself himself, etc? I don’t see middle voice here.
Groundbreaking research.