The work and the thesis do different things.
There are also different approaches:
A prospectus (in arts disciplines) states an idea for a creative work and predicts specific ways that it can be successful. To state the idea, make clear what skills you will use, how it will work, and what it will demonstrate or illuminate in dialog with other art work. To predict its success, articulate a need for the work, and your reasons for making it, drawing support from existing artwork, theory, and/or criticism. A good prospectus persuades an arts institution that it ought to present your work and support it financially.
from OSU is this: A thesis is an extremely formulaic type of writing.Every thesis follows pretty much the same organizational structure.
There are four primary parts of every single thesis. They may vary a little as to how many chapters each part has, but every thesis has at least one chapter covering thesis four parts.
- Introduction: Don’t mess around with it! The only purpose is to introduce the research. You will outline the problem you intend to investigate, state the aim of the research, limit the scope of the investigation, and provide an overview of what lies ahead. 3-5 pages is usually sufficient.
- Background: The purpose is to position your research into the context of what has gone on before, what is currently taking place, and prove you know how research is generally conducted in this area. This is generally where your literature review goes. You might have chapters that cover the brief history of the topic area, current theory or practice, and/or results of any preliminary studies you may have carried out to help define your problem.
- Your Own Work: This part is really comprised of two parts nearly always: Your methodology and your Data and Analysis. Your methodology is the design of research developed to test hypotheses or answer questions developed from the background section. Your Data & Analysis is just that, the data and results of your methodology.
- Synthesis: This is your new contribution to the body of knowledge and is usually handled in two parts. This first part is a discussion that examines your work (part 3) in light of the background you presented (part 2). This may lead to the development of a new model or theory. The second part is a set of conclusions that should arise directly out of the discussion and and respond directly to the aim of the work stated in the Introduction (part 1)