Over the years, (G’/G)–expansion method is employed to generate traveling wave solutions to various wave equations in mathematical physics. In the present paper, the alternative (G’/G)–expansion method has been further modified by introducing the generalized Riccati equation to construct new exact solutions. In order to illustrate the novelty and advantages of this approach, the (1+1)-dimensional Drinfel’d-Sokolov-Wilson (DSW) equation is considered and abundant new exact traveling wave solutions are obtained in a uniform way. These solutions may be imperative and significant for the explanation of some practical physical phenomena. It is shown that the modified alternative (G’/G)–expansion method an efficient and advance mathematical tool for solving nonlinear partial differential equations in mathematical physics.