[skybrian]

A bulleted list, particularly in a slide presentation, is all headings, no content.

Sometimes the presenter talks about each item, giving meaningful detail while the structure is there on the screen. But it means that someone reading the slides alone misses the detail. Someone not listening carefully misses it too.

In written work, the headings are just headings. The paragraphs under the headings are the content. You can write transitions, too.

[kqr]

While this is a valid concern, I think its importance is over stated.

Much like some people tune out the speaker and just read the bullet points, I have known people who read just the headings or just the first sentence of paragraphs and then take action based on what they perceived of the document.

There is an argument still, of course, that the PowerPoint situation is worse because (if presented badly) the reading competes with the listening. I would still be hesitant to judge a medium based on bad execution, no matter how widespread. I'm willing to admit that might be unpragmatic of me.

[mrslave]

In journalism there is the concept of the inverted pyramid. An article's structure should be in order of importance. This way readers can assess the incremental gains of persisting with the article against their interest in the subject.