possessives - What is the correct shortened form for "Goals of the Theses"

What is the correct shortening for "Goals of the Theses"?

1. Theses Goals


2. Theses' Goals

I am confused, because Theses ends with an 's', but using the apostrophe makes it plural.

Answer

Thesis is singular, theses is plural. Thesis' is singular genitive, theses' is plural genitive. As a general rule for genitives of words ending in s, you use s', the Saxon genitive.

So, assuming you want to talk about the multiple goals in multiple theses, then you would use "theses' goals". If you want to talk about multiple goals on a single thesis, you would use "thesis' goals."

As a general rule you can translate "x of the y" into "y's x", these being the two forms of genitive in English. However, beware, there are many instances where the two are not interchangeable.