The present study investigated the Egyptian postgraduate students' difficulties in writing abstracts in English. In order to achieve the objectives of this study, a list of criteria for writing a good and effective abstract has been developed in the light of the review of literature. Besides, a content analysis of 35 abstracts written in English and published in Egyptian education journals, theses and dissertations (16 Master degree and Ph.D. theses and 19 journal articles) was carried out to identify the difficulties encountered by the postgraduate students. The analysis revealed that the grammatical difficulties (f=402) were the highest, followed by the educational terminology and technical writing difficulties (f=274) and finally the lexical difficulties (f=256). Finally, recommendations for overcoming these difficulties were suggested. Appended are: (1) List of Abstract Writing Criteria; (2) List of Journals Used in the Present Study; and (3) List of Theses Used in the Present Study [theses references are in Egyptian]. (Contains 2 tables.)