This column usually is written by a senior editor or a beat reporter, one of the more experienced journalists at The Times-Dispatch.

This week is a little different.

I am the least experienced journalist at The Times-Dispatch. I’ve been a reporting intern for about a month. I don’t know what I’m doing most of the time.

In spite of that, or rather because of it, I was asked to explain what it’s like to work in the newsroom.

My first job here was as a copy messenger. Back in the days of typewriters and rotary telephones, copy messengers would run stories between editors and typists, pick up advertisements at local businesses and make occasional trips to the liquor store.

These days, stories are moved from place to place on a complicated, expensive computer network. Copy messengers mostly sort the mail and fix the fax machine.

It was a good job. I had graduated from an Ivy League school with no demonstrable skills whatsoever and decided more or less on a whim to go into the newspaper business.

When I showed up here on my first day, I was a wet-behind-the-ears office boy with no idea what was going on. My mother works at a newspaper, so I knew a little of the terminology, but that was about it.

In many ways, working at the newspaper is no different from working in any office. We have the same cast of characters: We have office comedians and mis anthropes. We have stylish young hipsters and grandparents (some of whom are also stylish). We have a die-hard NASCAR fan and a "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" junkie. And there’s the guy who reportedly hasn’t washed his coffee cup in 30 years.

But the one thing that’s different from other jobs is that the people here really enjoy what they’re doing. Everyone is here for reasons that go far beyond the paycheck.

The journalists at The Times-Dispatch want you to be informed citizens capable of holding the government accountable. We also want you to know where to go for some decent Thai food and a movie tonight.

There is only one way to fulfill that commitment to providing you the information you need, and that is to get the facts right.

It may seem obvious, but that’s the most important lesson I’ve learned since working here — accuracy matters most. Being accurate is the first priority for everyone in the newsroom, from the managing editor to the copy messengers.

Accuracy starts with reporters, but of course, we make mistakes. I make lots of’em. Like the time I forgot to ask the organizer of an event how many people had attended, the most basic question imaginable. Even worse, I didn’t get her cell-phone number. Guessing just isn’t an option, so I got in my car, drove back to the event and asked.

I’ve made at least one boneheaded, amateur mistake like that on every assignment. But none of my mistakes has made it into the paper, and for that I have to thank my editors and the Copy Desk.

When a reporter is done with a story, it’s sent electronically to an editor to be read. Often a reporter will watch over an editor’s shoulder as he or she works on a story, to resolve ambiguities and answer questions.

Then the story is read by the Copy Desk. The copy editors correct my abysmal grammar and fix where I misspelled "ambiguities" just now. If they see a fact or figure that looks suspicious, they talk to my editor or call me at home.

That three-tiered system works pretty well, all things considered. Errors occasionally slip by, but journalists at The Times-Dispatch take mistakes very seriously. I once heard a reporter say that a correction had made him sick to his stomach. I have no doubt he meant it.

It might perhaps save some heartache if we didn’t run corrections and publicly acknowledge our mistakes. But then we would lose our readers’ trust and fail in our mission.

That was the second important lesson I learned here at the paper — it pays to speak up when you see something that’s wrong.

That goes for you as well. We want to print the best newspaper we can. For that, we need your help.

At the bottom of every article in the paper there’s something we call a "shirt tail." It has the reporter’s phone number and e-mail address. Also, in the upper corners on the front page of each section, there’s a phone number for that section’s editor.

We include those for two reasons: We love to hear from you when we get something right, and we need to hear from you when we get something wrong. So give us a call. I might even be the person who answers.

But bear with me if I accidentally cut you off when I try to transfer you. I haven’t quite learned how to work the phones.