In this paper a generalized tanh-function type method is proposed by using the idea of the transformed rational function method. We show that the (G'/G)?-expansion method is a special case of the generalized tanh-function type method, so the (G'/G)?-expansion method is considered as a special deformation application of the transformed rational function method. We demonstrate that all solutions obtained by the (G'/G)?-expansion method were found by the generalized tanh-function type method. As applications, we consider mKdV equation. Compared with the (G'/G) -expansion method, the generalized tanh-function type method gives new and more abundant solutions.