Do I need "Introduction" and "Conclusions" parts in my PhD thesis? My advisor has asked me to write my thesis in parts. So, basically, my thesis will have three major parts, each of which explains a different piece of work. However, he is asking me to also add a part called "Introduction" and a part called "Conclusions"

I know he is not quite experienced with this type of thesis writing (i.e., writing in parts), so I am not sure if this is the right thing to do. Moreover, he is asking me to add "Introduction" and "Conclusions" chapter to each part (except for the parts with the same names). This is also a little bit strange to me!

So, could someone help on structuring my thesis? This is the overall structure:


Part 1: It consists of three main chapters on topic A.
Part 2: It consists of two main chapters on topic B.
Part 3: It consists of one main chapter on topic C.


I am definitely going to need an introduction somewhere to justify the three parts and how they are relevant to each other and can be placed in the same thesis, however, I do not know where this introduction should be (should it be a chapter somewhere or part?)

EDIT: Here I also mention my advisor's suggested structure for clarity:


Part 1: Introduction (with one chapter called Introduction)
Part 2: topic A (with one chapter called Introduction and another called Conclusions)
Part 3: topic B (with one chapter called Introduction and another called Conclusions)
Part 4: topic C (with one chapter called Introduction and another called Conclusions)
Part 5: Conclusions (with one chapter called Conclusions and another called Future Work)
Run, don't walk, towards the advice of your advisor.

I'm not sure why you are questioning their "experience writing a thesis in parts."

You should add a broad introduction and broad conclusion that service your entire thesis; these will be before and after your Part 1 and Part 3, respectively.

You should add individual introductions and conclusions to each Part. Therefore you will have a total of 4 introductions and 4 conclusions, with 3 of each that have a narrower scope and 1 of each that have a broad scope.

You will probably additionally have introductions and conclusions within each chapter in each part, though you may not label them as such and they could simply be paragraphs. This is simply good writing and is not at all related to thesis writing specifically.