International Journal of Language and Linguistics Vol. 2, No. 5; November 2015 113 A Critical and Practical Analysis of the Generic Rhetorical Structure of Literature Reviews In the Non-Native Theses of Iranian TEFL Students Seyyed Mohammad Reza Adel Assistant Professor of TEFL, Department of English Language, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar, Iran Seyyed Mohammad Reza Amirian Assistant professor of TEFL, Department of English Language, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar, Iran Homeira Ghaderi MA Student, Department of English Language, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar, Iran Abstract This study intended to report findings from a survey of 95 literature reviews of TEFL graduate students’ theses at four universities to foster improvements in the compilation and assessment of literature reviews. A variant of a rubric for evaluating was used and inspired by Boote and Beile (2005). For validating the rubric, in addition to evaluating literature reviews in the whole literature, 60 students’ responses and three experts’ reflections were gathered through questionnaires and interviews accounting for the construct, content, and response validity of the rubric to improve skills in conceptualizing, writing, and analyzing data. The overall results signified deficiencies in some parts in the use of writing resources. To have pedagogical implications, findings revealed the necessity to teach knowledge transformation skills in graduate classes and collaboration among disciplines on the writing instruction and academic practitioners and also introduced a comprehensive rubric for evaluating literature reviews in the MA theses. Key words: Genre, Rhetorical Structure, Review of Literature, Thesis 1. Introduction A significant goal of scholarly research can be looking for innovations in the existing perception of the world or converting it to a more desirable locale to live in. Rarely are cognitive innovations created unexpectedly, nor are they exclusively derived from individuals (Kaufer & Geisler, 1989). What are specifically expected from post- graduate students are in the form of theses which are submitted when higher degrees are fulfilled. Of the specific sections of theses, it is the literature review which is essential but infamously difficult task to manage (Cooley & Lewkowicz, 1995, 1997; Meloy, 2002; Oliver, 2012; Shaw, 1991). Although there are a lot of guides and handbooks available for the students to write thesis or dissertation, the analysis of the actual texts of these two is very scarce (Mauch & Birch, 1998). Another problem is related to the size of the text which limits the observation or analysis of them (Swales, 1990; Thompson, 1999). Moreover, Atkinson (1997) has found a number of reasons for this problem such as the lack of their accessibility in university libraries. One can point to the remarks of Swales and Feak (2000) where they consider the literature review as a section of a research dissertation, thesis, paper or proposal to be boring but an essential chore. In addition, recent changes in the trend towards doing academic works have affected the theories, researches and the styles of academic writing (Noble, 94; Goodchild & Miller 1997). As Paltridge (2002) states, despite the number of recommendations available in guides and handbooks, few contain assessing discussions of the actual texts to fully match with what occurs in the real world. Therefore, the acquirement of knowledge and skills of research should specially be considered before writers of research begin to do anything for the improvement of scholarly investigations.