GMAT Club Legend
Joined: 05 Apr 2006
Affiliations: HHonors Diamond, BGS Honor Society
Posts: 5916
Schools: Chicago (Booth) - Class of 2009
WE:Business Development (Consumer Products)
[#permalink]
10 Dec 2006, 18:32
I use them in mine and don't care. The sytle and tone of the essay will come through much more on your overall language than on whether you said its or it is or whatever.
For instance, I often see people use cliches such as "I'd hit two birds with one stone", or otherwise more wordy phrases such as "They'd tossed it over the fence, and thus ... .bla bla"... brevity and conciseness often give a lot towards tone as well. Just for example.
"Having understood that various difficulties lay ahead that I would face in taking a new position, I knew that as my father had once said to me during my early childhood years "You must fight". I then knew that I had to keep pressing fowards to be able to get what I wanted to achieve. Despite many obvious obstacles and challenges, I decided to go for it. I know now that whenever I come face to face with an obstacle in my life I can tackle it and pin it to the ground with my determination."
Thats wordy and sounds very, chatty.
Compared to say,
"Faced with signficant challenges, I drew inspiration from my fathers' words: "You must fight". Nervous but undeterred, I accepted the new position. I've since realized that with determination I can suceed, even in difficult circumstances."
Basically they say the same thing, but how they read is drastically different and the number of unessecary words is dramatically reduced.
Take another example:
"I was thinking about giving each person a blackberry and Web/Internet access. For the customer, this would allow them to connect and start obtaining email right from day 1, without waiting for IT help. For us, this meant we could help the marketing employees, as well as also sell our Internet messenger to customers who need it or ask for it"
Vs:
"After careful consideration, I equipped our customers with Blackberrys. This not only provided key partners with connectivity to our offices but also enabled the marketing department's use of a powerful channel with which to build our messenger brand."
Same thing, reads very differently.
What I'm trying to say is, the rest of your essay is far more likely to convey tone and style than whether I said "I've" or "I have"