I know this sort of thing always depends on the subject area, but how long are your introductions to each chapter - few paragraphs?

Have a look at PhD manuscripts in your university library. Also, 'Doing Qualitative Research' by Silverman provides guidelines as to how to approach most chapters of the PhD - about the best book on the topic I've seen so far. I think it depends what the function of the introduction in each chapter is, which may depend on the structure of the PhD as a whole.

My experience is that introductions need to be short. You'll probably find your chapters are too long anyway. But you need to contextualise too.

Jay2007 - that's what I was hoping! The chapter itself is already quite long and I don't want to waste my precious word limit on repeating myself