Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[sejpdw]

" Unfortunately, computers have turned office jobs into boring, repetitive tasks. And they are bing used to watch over the workers' every move in the workplace and to compare their output with that of their fellow workers. These conditions have had the effct of increasing health problems due to job-related stress. In addition, productivity in service areas has scarcely risen since the mid-1970s, even though elecrtronic equipment should have increased procuctivity."

1) In the underlined sentence, "increasing" is used as a gerund whose object is health problems or as an adjective which is modifying health problems?

2) If "increasing" was used as a gerund, then "due to job-related stress" is used as an adverbial phrase related to " have had the effect....due to..." or "increasing .....due to...."?

[Lorikeet]