12c. Awkwardly placed modifiers
As a rule, a sentence should flow from subject to verb to object, without lengthy detours along the way. When a long adverbial word group separates a subject from its verb, a verb from its object, or a helping verb from its main verb, the result is often awkward.
There is no reason to separate the subject, Hong Kong, from the verb, was transferred, with a long phrase.
exception: Occasionally a writer may choose to delay a verb or an object to create suspense. In the following passage, for example, Robert Mueller inserts the after phrase between the subject women and the verb walk to heighten the dramatic effect.
I asked a Burmese why women, after centuries of following their men, now walk ahead. He said there were many unexploded land mines since the war. —Robert Mueller
Multilingual
English does not allow an adverb to appear between a verb and its object. See 30f.
