In my thesis all my chapters are grouped as a part (titled CHAPTERS). I want the part to appear in the TOC, but do not want a part page. The part is showing up fine in the toc, but the part page shows up before the first chapter and I don't want it to show up at all. That is I don't want the part titled CHAPTERS to appear anywhere except for the toc. Here's a MWE.
\documentclass[11pt, letterpaper]{thesis}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0pt}
\fancyhf{}
\cfoot{\thepage}
\renewcommand{\thechapter}{\Roman{chapter}}
\renewcommand{\thesection}{\arabic{section}}
\usepackage[title,titletoc]{appendix}
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\usepackage{tocloft}
\makeatletter
\renewcommand{\numberline}[1]{%
\@cftbsnum #1\@cftasnum~\@cftasnumb%
}
\makeatother
\usepackage{titlesec}
\assignpagestyle{\chapter}{fancy}
\titleformat{\chapter}[display]{\normalfont \centering}{CHAPTER \chaptertitlename\ \thechapter}{11 pt}{}
\titleformat{\section}[display]{\normalfont \centering}{}{11 pt}{}
\begin{document}
\renewcommand{\cftpartfont}{\normalfont}
\renewcommand{\cftchapfont}{\normalfont}
\renewcommand{\cftsecfont}{\normalfont}
\renewcommand{\cftpartpagefont}{\normalfont}
\renewcommand{\cftchappagefont}{\normalfont}
\renewcommand{\cftdotsep}{\cftnodots}
\setcounter{tocdepth}{1}
\setcounter{secnumdepth}{2}
\cftsetindents{chapter}{.5in}{1.0in}
\cftsetindents{section}{1.0in}{1.0in}
\setlength{\cftchapnumwidth}{2em}
\setlength\cftbeforechapskip{11pt}
\renewcommand\cftchapafterpnum{\vskip11pt}
\setlength{\cftbeforesecskip}{0pt}
\addcontentsline{toc}{part}{CONTENTS}
\renewcommand{\tocloftpagestyle}[1]{\def\@cftpagestyle{\thispagestyle{#1}}}
\tocloftpagestyle{empty}
\renewcommand*\contentsname{\centerline{CONTENTS}}
\renewcommand{\cfttoctitlefont}{\normalfont}
\tableofcontents
\newpage
\part*{CHAPTERS} % Use this so "Part" won't show up before title in toc
\addcontentsline{toc}{part}{CHAPTERS}
\chapter{First Chapter}
\thispagestyle{fancy}
\chapter{Second Chapter}
\thispagestyle{fancy}
\end{document}
