Something I often come across when proofreading dialogue-heavy fiction are dialogue tags that aren’t actually dialogue tags.
To clarify, in order for a word to be considered a dialogue tag, it needs to “be about speaking.” For instance, “smiled” is not a dialogue tag because someone can’t “smile” a sentence.
If a writer is intent on placing a word like “smiled” next to dialogue, that is fine, but it should be done like this:
“I’d take his advice with a grain of salt if I were you.” She smiled at her friend.
Notice that this is okay only because I placed a period instead of a comma after “you” and because I also made sure to capitalize “she.” By doing this, we are not saying that this person is “smiling” their words; we are only conveying a smile next to spoken words.
This is how a writer can convey something like a smile next to dialogue without mistakenly turning it into a dialogue tag.
Doing this is also common when you have a conversation going on back and forth between more than one person. It would be repetitive to keep saying something along the lines of “he said,” “she said.” After a few exchanges, it’s already clear who is saying each line, so a writer may choose to add something else that isn’t necessarily about speaking to make the writing less dull.
Hopefully this is helpful to both proofreaders and writers out there who are wrestling with dialogue tags.