Are any of these formats regarding the word ordering within the sentence generally preferred to the other in general writing? Are there any special considerations if a more formal style is preferred or if I want to achieve as high readability as possible?
As a non-native speaker of English I have a general perception about the first format being the standard form, but I've never really thought about it and can not deny the possibility that it could just be an arbitrary stylistic form that just happened to get standardised inside my head.
Examples
Say that I want to describe my apartment to a friend:
In my apartment I have chosen to follow a modernistic look.
vs
I have chosen to follow a modernistic look in my apartment.
Or that I'm writing an abstract for an academic paper of mine:
In this thesis, my main argument is that B is caused by A.
vs
My main argument in this thesis is that B is caused by A.
What should I know and think about this in order to make a more conscious stylistic choice here?