Question

how does a positively skewed distribution differ in appearance from a negatively skewed one?

Answer 1

A positively skewed distribution has a long right tail as most of its values are clustered around the left tail of the distribution. Similarly the negatively skewed distribution has a long left tail and most of its values are clustered around the right tail of the distribution. These look as:

The above case is an example of a negatively skewed or a left skewed distribution

The above is an example of a positively skewed or a right skewed distribution.