diff --git a/hooks/pre-commit b/hooks/pre-commit
index 486a02808b6ac..2f0eec94577c3 100755
--- a/hooks/pre-commit
+++ b/hooks/pre-commit
@@ -2,11 +2,10 @@
 
 KUBE_HOOKS_DIR="$(dirname "$(test -L "$0" && echo "$(dirname $0)/$(readlink "$0")" || echo "$0")")"
 
-files_need_gofmt=()
-files_need_boilerplate=()
-files_need_description=()
+exit_code=0
 
-echo -ne "Checking for files that need gofmt..."
+echo -ne "Checking for files that need gofmt... "
+files_need_gofmt=()
 files=($(git diff --cached --name-only --diff-filter ACM | grep "\.go" | grep -v -e "third_party" -e "Godeps"))
 for file in "${files[@]}"; do
   # Check for files that fail gofmt.
@@ -15,9 +14,20 @@ for file in "${files[@]}"; do
     files_need_gofmt+=("${file}")
   fi
 done
-echo "done"
 
-echo -ne "Checking for files that need boilerplate..."
+if [[ "${#files_need_gofmt[@]}" -ne 0 ]]; then
+  echo "ERROR!"
+  echo "Some files have not been gofmt'd.  To fix these errors, "
+  echo "cut and paste the following:"
+  echo "  gofmt -s -w ${files_need_gofmt[@]}"
+  exit_code=1
+else
+  echo "OK"
+fi
+echo
+
+echo -ne "Checking for files that need boilerplate... "
+files_need_boilerplate=()
 boiler="${KUBE_HOOKS_DIR}/boilerplate.py"
 # Check for go files without the required boilerplate.
 if [[ ${#files[@]} -gt 0 ]]; then
@@ -35,9 +45,22 @@ files=($(git diff --cached --name-only --diff-filter ACM | grep "\.py" | grep -v
 if [[ ${#files} -gt 0 ]]; then
   files_need_boilerplate+=($("${boiler}" "py" "${files[@]}"))
 fi
-echo "done"
 
-echo -ne "Checking for API descriptions..."
+if [[ "${#files_need_boilerplate[@]}" -ne 0 ]]; then
+  echo "ERROR!"
+  echo "Some files are missing the required boilerplate header"
+  echo "from hooks/boilerplate.txt:"
+  for file in "${files_need_boilerplate[@]}"; do
+    echo "  ${file}"
+  done
+  exit_code=1
+else
+  echo "OK"
+fi
+echo
+
+echo -ne "Checking for API descriptions... "
+files_need_description=()
 # Check API schema definitions for field descriptions
 for file in $(git diff --cached --name-only --diff-filter ACM | egrep "pkg/api/v.[^/]*/types\.go" | grep -v "third_party"); do
   # Check for files with fields without description tags
@@ -46,48 +69,30 @@ for file in $(git diff --cached --name-only --diff-filter ACM | egrep "pkg/api/v
     files_need_description+=("${file}")
   fi
 done
-echo "done"
-
-ret=0
-if [[ "${#files_need_gofmt[@]}" -ne 0 ]]; then
-  echo
-  echo "# *** ERROR: *** Some files have not been gofmt'd.  To fix these"
-  echo "# errors, run gofmt -s -w <file>, or cut and paste the following:"
-  echo "#   gofmt -s -w ${files_need_gofmt[@]}"
-  echo
-  ret=1
-fi
-
-if [[ "${#files_need_boilerplate[@]}" -ne 0 ]]; then
-  echo
-  echo "# *** ERROR: *** Some files are missing the required boilerplate"
-  echo "# header from hooks/boilerplate.txt:"
-  for file in "${files_need_boilerplate[@]}"; do
-    echo "#   ${file}"
-  done
-  echo
-  ret=1
-fi
 
 if [[ "${#files_need_description[@]}" -ne 0 ]]; then
-  echo
-  echo "# *** ERROR: *** Some API files are missing the required field descriptions"
-  echo "# Add description tags to all non-inline fields in the following files:"
+  echo "ERROR!"
+  echo "Some API files are missing the required field descriptions."
+  echo "Add description tags to all non-inline fields in the following files:"
   for file in "${files_need_description[@]}"; do
-    echo "#   ${file}"
+    echo "  ${file}"
   done
-  echo
-  ret=1
+  exit_code=1
+else
+  echo "OK"
 fi
+echo
 
-echo -ne "Checking for docs that need updating..."
+echo -ne "Checking for docs that need updating... "
 if ! hack/verify-gendocs.sh > /dev/null; then
-  echo
-  echo "# *** ERROR: *** docs are out of sync between cli and markdown"
-  echo "# run hack/run-gendocs.sh > docs/kubectl.md to regenerate"
-  echo
-  ret=1
+  echo "ERROR!"
+  echo "Some docs are out of sync between CLI and markdown."
+  echo "To regenerate docs, run:"
+  echo "  hack/run-gendocs.sh > docs/kubectl.md"
+  exit_code=1
+else
+  echo "OK"
 fi
-echo "done"
+echo
 
-exit $ret
+exit $exit_code