A sorting machine takes a line of unsorted words as input and sorts them into a single output line, one word at a time, over a series of steps. At each step, the machine finds the word, among those not yet placed, that has the fewest letters; if two or more remaining words are tied for fewest letters, it chooses whichever comes first alphabetically. It places that word in the next available position from the left. This continues, step by step, until every word has been placed, resulting in the words sorted first by length, from shortest to longest, and then alphabetically among words of the same length.